India face Australia in the final of the World Test Championship looking for their first overall victory.
But to do so, they must dismiss David Warner quickly.
That is part of the plan, according to Rahul Dravid.
“He (Warner) is a class player. It’s not as simple as just turning up and bowling round the wicket and getting him out,” Dravid told reporters at The Oval ahead of the showdown, which begins on Wednesday.
“He wouldn’t have played a hundred times if it was that simple.”
The former India batsman added: “There’s nowhere to hide any more, everyone has very similar information about each other. It’s just how you counter that.
“Every batsman will have areas they’re strong at and areas that are not probably their strengths, and David has been very successful.
“We know it’s a very important wicket to get early on.”
India were beaten by New Zealand in the inaugural 2021 showpiece in Southampton.
Australia star batsman Steve Smith, whose side just missed out on the inaugural final, after losing their last home series India, is adamant it is a match his side want to win just as much as a 50-over or T20 World Cup final.
“We’re all just looking forward to this (match against India),” Smith told reporters at The Oval on Monday.
“It’s two years in the making, of getting to the final of the World Test Championship, it’s a big week for us and India, so we’ll get through this then we’ll focus after that.
“Every game you play for your country is important.”
Facing a prodigiously swinging Dukes ball fired by Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc will be India’s biggest challenge.
And Rohit Sharma knows this all too well.
“England, in general, is pretty challenging conditions for the batters, but as long as you are prepared to have a good grind you can have some success as a batter,” he said ahead of the WTC final beginning on Wednesday.
“One thing I realised batting here was you are never in actually, because the weather keeps changing a lot.
“So you’ve got to keep concentrating for longer periods of time and that is the challenge of this format.”
“You’ll get that intuition when it is your time to take the bowlers on and that is when you should be ready for it.”
When it comes to playing India, it has to be Smith for Australia. He averages six runs more against them than his overall career numbers and has scored eight of his 30 career Test 100s against Indian bowlers in just 35 H2H innings. Smith also loves this place having scored two centuries and a fifty from just five Test innings at the Oval.
If there’s one player who’s still not swayed by the nagging influence of “Bazball”, it’s Cheteshwar Pujara. The Test specialist similarly averages nearly seven runs more against the Aussies than his career average and has faced between 145 and 314 balls in his last four H2H innings away from home. He has a score to settle with The Oval, though, averaging a paltry 19.50 in six knocks here whilst failing to go beyond 31 balls in four of those.