STUART BROAD: Like Usain Bolt and Brazil, there’s something magical about the Indian cricket team. I hope they win the World Cup against Australia

• India have the same magic as some of sports greats and should win World Cup 
• Virat Kohli deserves to be a two-time World Cup winner given his career  
• South Africa could be ones to watch at the next World Cup in Africa in four years 

India winning the World Cup is a bit like Brazil winning football’s equivalent. There is a bit of magic to it.

And personally, I think it would be great for the game if India come out on top against Australia in Ahmedabad because it will inspire the next generation of cricket’s powerhouse, just as their 2011 triumph did.

An Indian victory is the most marketable outcome for the sport — comparable to when Usain Bolt used to line up for the 100 metres. All of athletics’ stakeholders wanted him to win because it leads to bigger sponsorship, bigger TV rights, greater exposure for the sport.

Given the career Virat Kohli has had, making 50 ODI hundreds, he deserves to be a double World Cup winner in his own country, too.

Yes, England went into the competition as champions. But they were never going to retain their title. There was a lack of clarity in their campaign, via constant changes in personnel, and they didn’t have the firepower with the ball to compete with this beast of an India team. And let’s face it, if you’re not first, you’re last in World Cups.

Virat Kohli will be looking to help India to World Cup victory when they face Australia 

The trophy that both India and Australia will be looking to lift when they meet on Sunday 

The only team that could upset India in the final could be Pat Cummins’ Australian side 

India are so powerful in their own conditions that I would say they would win this final 95 times out of 100.

You only need look down their line-up to gauge their strength: they’ve got a top six all of whom can score match-winning hundreds, while any of their bowlers can take a five-for. They’re the only team in the World Cup that you can say that about.

Australia are probably the only opponents — I would have said Pakistan pre-tournament — that could potentially upset India because they possess the bowling attack to blow the outstanding top order of the home side away.

Australia’s route to producing a shock in my view is win the toss, bowl, hope the ball nips around and for Mitchell Starc to get it right, hit Rohit Sharma on the shin, and Josh Hazelwood following up by nicking off Kohli. 

If they could cook up a situation of early wickets like that, placing India under pressure and limiting them to something like 220, you would expect Australia to knock the runs off.

But you only have to look at the rhythm of modern World Cups to work out which way things were going to go on the Subcontinent. The 2011 event was held in India; India won it. In 2015, it was in Australia; Australia won it. In 2019, it was in England; England won it.

Basically, whoever you dish the next World Cup out to becomes a major favourite and so if I was a South African player, I would be looking at things, thinking, ‘I can definitely play another four years, here’. They will never have a better chance than in 2027.

What I want most of all today is a spectacle. There was a real hoo-ha about the pitch for India’s semi-final win over New Zealand in Mumbai and 99 per cent of world cricket would tell you that it’s not that hard to get a fresh pitch for such a big game. 

Equally, if you’re a stadium that can get the rights to hold a World Cup semi- final, you should be able to produce a fresh pitch.

South Africa could be ones to watch in the next World Cup when it’s played on African soil 

England went into the competition as champions – but they were never going to retain their title (pictured, Ben Stokes)

You could tell Kane Williamson was frustrated by the way he answered questions at the toss, saying: ‘We’d have liked to have had a bat on a used pitch.’ That’s about as niggly as New Zealand get.

However, if a team can score 400 on it and at the halfway stage the chasing team are in with a chance of knocking off the runs, there can be no criticism of the actual pitch produced. It would have been a different story if it had been a 220 plays 150 scenario. Ultimately, the surface was a belter.

About 50 times better than the one served up for the second semi in Kolkata, in fact. That one was a new-ball bowler’s dream, and you could see the surprise on the South African batters’ faces when it was nipping and bouncing. Then, when the spinners came on, it turned square.

My one wish for Sunday is that it is an occasion when we are able to talk about the brilliance of the cricket on display.

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