Rohit Sharma has disagreed with Pat Cummins’ assertion that having a large quota of World Cup winners in the Australia squad will give them an advantage in tomorrow’s (November 19) final.

Speaking in his pre-final press conference, Cummins was asked about Australia’s history of successful World Cup campaigns. The final in Ahmedabad will be Australia’s eighth men’s World Cup final, five of which they’ve won. Asked whether that history made the side favourites going into the match in Ahmedabad, Cummins said: “The good thing is I think we’ve got six or seven guys that won it in 2015 so we know that feeling. Even more of the guys that were there in the T20 World Cup, different format, but pretty much everyone, well at least a dozen of the 15, have won a World Cup and know what it takes and know that feeling and won’t be afraid to go out there and be brave and take the game on.”

Australia won the 2015 tournament on home soil when they beat New Zealand in the final in Melbourne. From that squad, David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Cummins himself are all expected to play in this year’s final.

In his press conference, Rohit was asked about Cummins comments, to which he responded: “No, look, in my opinion, that can’t be such an advantage. I can understand from which angle he’s speaking, because they are experienced players. They have the experience of playing the finals. But I think when you play such a tournament, and we’re talking about eight years later, I think the players’ current form, current state of mind, is more important than that.

“Our team has also played a lot of finals. We haven’t played in the World Cup finals, but we’ve played in a lot of finals. There are two boys who played in the World Cup finals in 2011. Ashwin didn’t play, but Virat did. As far as such finals are concerned, I think there are a lot of players in the team who have played in finals. They know how to handle a pressure situation. So, I don’t think there will be any extra advantage. I mean, that’s their thinking. Our thinking is a little different. We just have to continue the way we’ve been playing our cricket and then let’s see what happens.”

India last won the men’s 50 over World Cup in 2011 on home soil. Kohli and Ashwin are the only crossovers from the squad that lifted the trophy on that occasion in Mumbai to the current edition.

While India come into the final unbeaten, Australia had a difficult start to the tournament, losing their opening two matches to India and South Africa respectively. They have since gone on an eight-match unbeaten run, beating South Africa in the semi-final.

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