Indian captain Virat Kohli admitted that the New Zealand side are the deserving winners of the inaugural World Test Championship, but he batted for the three-match finale in the next World Test Championship cycle.
“I am not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game,” Kohli said in the wake of his team’s eight-wicket loss in Southampton.
“If it is a Test series, it has to be a test of character over three Tests – which team has the ability to come back in the series or totally blow away the other team. It can’t just be pressure applied over two days of good cricket and then suddenly you are not a good Test side anymore. I don’t believe in it.”
“So we are not too bothered by this result because we understand as a Test side what we have done over the last 3-4 years, not just over the last 18 months. So this is not a measure of who we are as a team [with] the ability and the potential we have had for so many years now.”
“Absolutely. If you saw the way the game went, with whatever time we got on the field, why wouldn’t you want to see two more Tests of the same teams battling it out and, eventually, being the worthy winners of the World Test Championship?
“Historically all the great series that you’ve seen in Test cricket, you remember them over a period of three matches or five matches perhaps, with two teams going against each other and those series become memorable.”
“This definitely has to be brought in. I’m not saying this because we’re not on the winning side, but just for Test cricket and for this saga to be absolutely memorable, it has to happen over a period of three games minimum, so that you have a series to remember.”
“There are going to be ups and downs throughout, with two quality sides going at each other, knowing that there’s so much on the line.”
New Zeland skipper Kane Williamson won his first title as captain that was also his side’s maiden global tile claim. They were the runners-up side in the 2015 and 2019 World Cup.
The Indian team will next face Sri Lanka in the limited-overs series while their next big Test consignment is against England during the second half of their home summer.
