London, June 11 (IANS) South Africa have won the toss and elected to bowl against Australia in the 2025 ICC World Test Championship Final at the Lord’s Cricket Ground on Wednesday. This will be the first time that the iconic Lord’s will be hosting a World Test Championship Final. There is also a reserve day in place on June 16, provided time is lost due to inclement weather in original five days.

Australia come in as reigning champions, while South Africa are in this title clash for the first time. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said the pitch looks good, but overhead conditions have dictated his decision to bowl first.

“Will have a bowl first looking at the overhead conditions. Looks like a good pitch. Too late to change the team, we have selected the best combination. “All 15 of us are confident. We all have had some allegiance to Lord’s, the emotion will hit us when the anthems stat playing. It is a massive final, it should be a spectacle out here,” he said.

Australia skipper Pat Cummins said he was happy to bat first in a big championship final. “Preparation has been unreal. All the guys in the team are ready to go. Everyone’s come together and we have had about ten days of preparation. I don’t think there’s any extra pressure. We’ve been here before and won it. So it’s just about going out and enjoying it,” he said.

A pitch report by Nasser Hussain and Stuart Broad said conditions on ground are cloudy out here with a breeze blowing and very slight chance of rain looming around. The square boundaries are 63m and 67m respectively, with longer straight boundaries in place.

Playing XIs

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, and Josh Hazlewood

South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (captain), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, and Lungi Ngidi

–IANS

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