India’s head coach Ravi Shastri believes that the World Test Championship Final is more significant than all the World Cups. Shastri reasoned it by saying that it’s a big final in the toughest format of the game which is what makes it such a humungous occasion for everyone involved.
The much-awaited World Test Championship Final between India and New Zealand finally commenced on Saturday after the first day of the encounter got washed out. For the first time in world cricket, a championship is being played in the longer version of the game, which makes it one of the exciting encounters of the year. India and New Zealand, who had topped the WTC charts, are currently participating in the marquee clash in Southampton.
On Saturday, India’s head coach Ravi Shastri declared that the WTC Final is the biggest of all the ICC megaevents given that Test cricket is the toughest among all the formats of the game. He also highlighted that it will help a lot of big players from the side to feature in the final game of an ICC championship.
“It’s the ‘big daddy of all World Cups’. I’ve played the 1983 World Cup, commentated on a few of them but this one is the biggest of them all. It’s the toughest format, the biggest format and the job satisfaction is maximum. There are a lot of big players who’ve not got their hands on a World Cup, so playing in a big final is always special. To keep the team at number one for five years is a massive achievement,” Shastri told host broadcaster Star Sports on Saturday, reported TOI.
For a while now, India have been announcing their playing XI well before the game and they did the same ahead of the WTC Final. However, with the first day getting washed out, there was certainly a possibility of making changes to the composition to suit the conditions. But India decided against it as they stuck to the same XI.
Speaking on the same, Shastri said that they would have reconsidered their team in case the game was reduced to 2-3 days, or else, the team’s composition comfortably takes the pitch out of the equation.
“On an occasion like this we wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Not really. Unless you would have had another washout today and the game had been reduced to a 2-3 day game, but otherwise with the kind of attack we have, we take the pitch out of the equation. On a day like this it helps the fast bowlers get help, but when the sun comes out the spinners would come into play. Jadeja and Ashwin add that variety and they bowl well in tandem. They have close to 600-700 wickets and complement each other really well.”
In the ongoing WTC Final, New Zealand won the toss and put India to bat. At lunch on the second day, India lost two wickets for 69 runs after 28 overs.