As India gear up for their next challenge, which is the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, the focus will certainly remain on the pitch. The match is being played at England, which has a reputation of assisting the quicks and Australia already boast of a formidable seam attack. Rohit Sharma during a practice session at The Oval(ICC Twitter)

Despite the last minute exclusion of Josh Hazlewood, Australia still have the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc in their ranks, who can pose a major threat to Indian batters in these conditions. In addition the team also have Scott Boland and Michael Neser, who could be equally threatening.

The problems don't stop here as Cameron Green has already shown in the recently concluded IPL that he too can extract some good pace and bounce from any surface.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who many have anticipated is unlikely to feature given the conditions in England, gave fans an account of the pitch at The Oval, the venue for the WTC finals, which starts from Wednesday.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Ashwin has a sporting chat with a person, whom he refers as “Leez” also calling him the “pitch doctor”.

During the conversation, Ashwin enquired him about the pitch and also revealed that a few players took a hit while batting at practice pitches.

Leez: “Good Oval pitch”

Ashwin: “You've always prepared good pitches. But today, some of our guys got hit on the practice pitches. So is it going to be similar?”

Leez: “Bounce, did it bounce”

Ashwin: “Yeah, it bounced a lot today. You don't like me. You don't get it to spin, right?

“What do you think? Are you excited for the final? Can we expect a nice and bouncy Brett Lee pitch?”

Leez: “It will be bouncy. That's one thing I can guarantee. It will be bouncy.”

While the task may appear daunting on papers but going by the form a few Indian batters have displayed in the last few months fans can expect a deadly contest between the bat and the ball.

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