The World Test Championship (WTC) final is scheduled to be played from June 18 between India and New Zealand at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. It would be a one-off Test to ?decide the final winners of the two and a half years WTC cycle.
While New Zealand recently toppled India to occupy the numero-uno spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Rankings with 123 points, India are positioned just a? positi?on below them.
The playing conditions? for the WTC final state that a reserve day has been added to the five-day game to nullify any considerable loss in time or substantial impairment of overs.
Yet, the reserve day won’t be used to get a decisive result in case of a draw.
Moreover, the WTC finalists qualified for the grand event after toiling hard for two and a half years. Some experts opine that New Zealand might have an advantage in marquee event since they have played a two-match Test series against England before the final and? adjusted we??ll to the conditions.
Taking cognizance of the same, the Indian cricket fraternity, including head coach Ravi Shastri, former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, suggested that the WTC final should have been?? a three-game red-ball series. This would have helped in deciding a clear winner and not sharing t?he trophy between the two sides in case of a tie.
However, ICC acting chief executive Geoff Allardice disagreed with experts and argued that the culmination of the event with just one cherry contest between the two contenders for the silverware “is quite exciting.”
Allardice further added that blocking out a month for the finale and stopping other nations from their tours would have been quite a task taking into account the packed schedule at the i?nternational and domestic levels.
“The reality of the international cricket schedule is that we’re not going to have that month or so, blocking out a month or so for all the teams in the tournament for a final. That’s why (a) one-match final was decided upon,” Allardice said in a virtual news conference.
Meanwhile, India are currently in England participating in an intra-squad match to get accustomed to the conditions and give a tough compe?tition to the Blackcaps in the final.
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]]>New Zealand announced their 15-man squad to compete in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final against India at Southampton on Tuesday.
The Blackcaps went with a 20-man touring party to England to play the two red-ball match series against the hosts. They made six changes in the second game and gave most of their memb?ers a chance to prove their mettle.
Despite their experiments with the squad, Kiwis won the Test series by a margin of 1-0. Out of the 17 players who were given an opportunity to perform in the series, 15 players have been retained except for all-rounders Mitchell Santner and Daryl Mitchell.
While Santner went wicketless in the first Test and was shown the way to the pavilion for a golden duck, Mitchell too couldn’t bag any scalp and only made a paltry score of six runs when he came in to bat.
Colin de Grandhomme has been selected for his all-rounder skills, while Ajaz Patel has been added as the specialist spinner.
Tom Blundell has retained his position as backup wicket-keeper, whereas Will Young has been picked as a specialist batting option.
All the remaining three players who did not get a chance in the England series – Doug Bracewell, Jacob Duffy, Rachin Ravindra – have been snubbed from the squad.
NZ coach Gary Stead mentioned that apart from three out of the five excluded players, the fourth coach Heinrich Malan and physiotherapist Vijay Vallabh would also repatriate back to their country.
“With our squad being reduced, Heinrich and our second physio Vijay Vallabh will return home to New Zealand on June 16, along with Jacob, Rachin and Mitchell. We wish them well and thank them for their efforts,” Stead revealed in a virtual pres?s conference on Tuesday.
Daryl Mitchell and Doug Bracewell will stay in England and ply their trade for Middlesex and Nottinghamshire during the Vitality T20 Blast.
New Zealand’s Test squad for WTC final:
Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Devon Conway??, Colin d??e Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Will Young.
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]]>Former Indian cricketer and selector, Sandeep Patil, made scathing remarks on Test specialist Ajinkya Rahane, regarding his ba??tting approach in the recently concluded series against New Zealand, on Wednesday.
Rahane and Co. copped a fair bit of criticism fo??r their cautious approach adopted on the green surfaces offered at Basin Reserve and Hagley Oval.
Even Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, condemned the ‘cautious’ approach of Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari, mid-way into the 2-match Test series.
The Indian batting unit failed collectively?? in all four outings in New Zealand, as they managed just a single score of abo??ve 200.
As a result, India, after being handed a 3-0 whitewash in the ODI series, ended up losing the Test series by 2-nil.
Patil traced Rahane’s slow batting approach to his stint with Mumbai this season. The former selector of the BCCI cited out ‘fear of failure’ as the main issue troubling the Mumbai stalwart.
“I heard about this (batting slowly) when he was playing for Mumbai this season. This happens due to the fear of failure. He has led India, he’s got a tremendous overseas record, but all that’s history. Now that he’s been labeled only as a Test player, been out of India’s limited-overs team, human nature is such that one wants to establish himself as a Test specialist. He’s trying to prove a point.” Patil explained.
In the recent series against New Zealand, Rahane averaged just 21.50, collecting only 91 runs in the four innings. Rahane’s watchful knock of 46 came off 138 deliveries at Wellington.
Subsequently, India’s number five in Tests scored a 75-ball 29, 27-ball 7 and 43-ball 9 in the remainder of the series as opposed to his counter-attacking batting model. Patil called out Rahane’s defensive batting method and compared him to a security guard.
“By doing that, you try to show that I’ll be technically correct. I’ll try to occupy the crease. If you want to just occupy,’ you can call a security guard! Who’ll score the runs?,” questioned Patil, while talking to TOI.
Later, Patil blamed coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Vikram Rathor for the capitulation of Indian batting in New Zealand.
“If Rahane isn’t understanding this, what is Shastri, and the batting coach doing? If one batsman goes into a shell, the others follow, and the team suffers. Those who bats after such batsmen feel that the bowling is too good,” the 63-year-old concluded.
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]]>The South African cricketer who revolutionized the fielding department of the game, Jonty Rhodes, bestowed praises for Ravindra Jadeja’s catch during the Christchurch Test.
Rhodes, who is currently engaged with his stint as a commentator in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020, drew parallels of Jadeja’s catch to the one by Ben Stokes during the ICC World Cup in England last year.
“It was a fantastic catch. It reminded me of Ben Stokes’s catch [to dismiss SA’s Akile Phehlukwayo during the 2019 World Cup at The Oval in London].”
Many cricketing pundits hailed Stokes’s catch as one of the best, due to his sheer audacity and execution to attempt an improbable catch.
Placed at mid-wicket, a few paces ahead of the boundary rope to cut off doubles, Stokes ran to his left and lea??ped to catch the ??ball, which already passed him, and was on its way to the boundary.
Happy birthday, @benstokes38!
Don't think we'll ever get tired of watching this… pic.twitter.com/KUUOkU2beL
— ICC (@ICC) June 4, 2019
“Jadeja being a good fielder, had great timing and athleticism. It’s more important to have good feet than good hands! Plus, he went for the ball,” Rhodes suggested, according to Mid-day.
It was only a month back when Rhodes was asked about his favorite fielders in the world of all time. The former Mumbai Indians coach included Suresh Raina and Jadeja in his list.
Already in Rhodes’ good books, Jadeja pulled off a superlative catch to dismiss Neil Wagner, placed at square leg, with a one-handed screame?r.
“Often, players are not prepared to go for the ball as they don’t want to drop it; or they don’t think they can reach it. My mantra is, if you don’t go, you will never know,” concluded Rhodes.
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]]>The Test match between India and New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch largely remained forgetful for the tourists.
New Zealand cruised towards a seven-wicket ??win wi?th yet another victory after winning the toss and opting to bowl first.
India’s struggle with the bat continued as they managed their only 200+ score of the series in the first innings. Coming out to bowl, Indian bowlers did well to reduce the hosts to 183 for the loss of 8 wickets. During Mohammed Shami’s effort to dismiss Neil Wagner, Ravindra Jadeja’s stunning catch at square leg turned out to be ?one of the highlight??s of the game.
The Indian ace allrounder reacted to his acrobatic catch, claiming that he wasn’t anticipating the ball to come at such velocity, after hitting Wagner’s willow.
“I was expecting him (Wagner) to score towards deep square leg. But I didn’t expect the ball to come at that pace,” Jadeja reflected on his catch.
Many cricket fanatics have already hailed this catch as ‘Catch of the decade.’ Jadeja, who supported Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, bagged a couple of wickets in the first innings.
“It came so quickly with the wind, and I just stuck my hand out. I didn’t even realize when I took the catch. We bowled well as a unit. We will look to bat well and bowl them out again,” concluded Jadeja.
However, after adding just nine to the Indian total in his first outing, Jade??ja remained ??unbeaten on 16 as the Indians were bundled out a paltry 124 in the second innings.
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]]>Former Indian great, VVS Laxman, went into the details of Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s batting technique and revealed what’s going wrong with the stalwart.
Kin?g Kohli, who is used to ??flaunt his perennial purple-patch off-late, has struggled to put on a decent score in recent outings.
His record during the ongoing New Zealand tour forced statisticians to draw par??allel ?with his horrendous tour of England back in 2014.
During his trip to Britain a few years back, Ko??hli fell victim to James Anderson on numerous occasions, poking at balls outside the off-stump and giving simple catches to th??e slip cordon.
“The problem for Virat Kohli is not the LBW dismissal, but the way the bat is coming down. This was the way he was getting out in England against the moving ball, especially against James Anderson,” recalled Laxman, while analyzing the dismissal during a show for the official broadcasters of New Zealand vs India series.
Kohli, after his failure in the second innings in Christchurch, now has a paltry average of 9.5, eclipsing his horror show in England, where he averaged just over 13.
“In this series, we have seen the bat coming down at an angle, that is why there is always going to be a gap between bat and ball. He will not have any time to meet the ball once there is movement,” added Laxman.
Further, the second-ranked Test batsman in the world could only manage an aggregate ?of 218 runs in the ongoing New Zealand tour, 36 short of his total during England tour in 2014.
“In this series, in these two innings, the old habit of Kohli had come back to haunt him,” Laxman added further.
Despite his forgetful tour to England, Kohli came back in 2018 ??and mended his record in England by to?p-scoring amongst both teams, during the 5-match Test series.
Also, the duel between Anderson and Kohli was worth watching as the former tried his level best to get the prized scalp of the latter. But Kohli, winni??ng over his bad habits, did not give any wicket to Anderson throughout the series.
“One must give credit to New Zealand for planning and executing and the plans have worked. Whoever is doing the planning, needs a pat on the back. Stump to stump, channel to start with, away swinger to get him thinking and then the one that comes back into the stumps to get him out,” concluded the former Indian international.
The Indian team was left reeling at 9??0-6 on stumps on Day 2 of the Christchurch Test, and are now on a verge of a 2-nil whitewash in the series.
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]]>The Indian sk??ipper??, Virat Kohli, who has been prolific with the bat in all formats of the game since 2016, is currently going through one of the roughest patches in his imperious international career.
After his dismissals in the second innings of the second Test at Christchurch, Kohli officially regis??tered his worst tour? abroad in Tests, eclipsing his horrid tour of England in 2014, in terms of both runs scored and averages.
In all three forma?ts of the game, Kohli could only manage 218 runs during the New Zealand tour. This is now his lowest aggregate after the 254 runs collected during his forgettable England tour in 2014.
James Anderson’s outside the off stump line turned out to be Kohli’s kryptonite during the said tour. Also, Virat’s average of 9.5 in the current New Zealand series, is now his second-lowest in his career, beating his average of 13.4 during the five-match Test encounter in England, for a two-match series or more.
Although, his worst Test series in terms of average is still against Australia during their trip to India in 2017. Kohli averaged 9.2 in that 4-match Test series.
Not often you see such numbers for Virat Kohli #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/3tq6pROy39
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) March 1, 2020
218 runs on this tour for Kohli – the lowest for him on a tour where he played in all the three formats. #NZvIND //t.co/HxCqETd9PX
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) March 1, 2020
Lowest average in a Test seri?es for Virat Kohli: (2+ matc??hes)
9.20 v Aus, 2017, India
9.50 v NZ, 2020, New Zealand*
13.40 v Eng, 2014, England#NZvIND— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) March 1, 2020
Kohli, above all, has not been able to notch-up a t?hree-figure score in as many as 22 international outings, a milestone his fans are so used to witnessing.
Furthermore, his last innings of prominence came against Bangladesh during the Pink Test at Eden g??arden, where he slammed 136.
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]]>India’s coach Ravi Shastri, in a recent interaction with the media, conceded that his team was ‘conservative’ and ‘tentative’ in their approach during the Wellington Test.
With an absolute green-top on offer, the Indian batting order collapsed in both innings of the Test match. Only Ajinkya Rahane and Mayank Agarwal looked comfortable during their s?tay at the crease in the first? Test.
Also, India’s number three, Cheteshwar Pujara received quite a substantial amount of criticism for his ultra-defensive approach, along with Hanuma Vihari.
Pujara consumed as many as 128 deliveries to score 28 runs in ??aggregate d??uring his outing at Basin Reserve.
“They are an experienced outfit. We were a little conservative and tentative in the first Test. Hopefully, that would not happen here. Everyone has to adapt in the conditions,” Ravi Shastri was quoted as saying by ANI.
Further, the New Zealand team, backed by their skipper Kane Williamson, who scored an impressive 89, posted 348 in their first i??nnings.
Shastri opined that conditions were feasible for batting from Day 2 onwards, and the likes of Trent Boult and Tim Southee used their home conditions to ?trouble the Indian batsmen.
“I thought conditions for New Zealand were far better on day one of the first Test. The conditions eased when India came into bowl. Familiarity in conditions also helped the Kiwi side as you know what Southee and Boult did,” added the Indian coach.
With only three wickets in hand, 60 runs ahead, India conceded a lead of 183 to New Zealand in the first in?nings of the Test, failing to dislodge the Kiwi tailenders.
It was not the first the Indian team faced issues dismissing tailen??ders. Post-2018, India lost Test matches abro??ad from vantage points in Edgbaston, Centurion, Oval, and Southampton, after failing to clinch the final four-wickets of the opposition.
“It has been a problem for us for a year now. We have had a chat about it. We will look to address it in a different manner. You will see,” assured Shastri.
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]]>The Indian cricket team, currently trailing the two-match Test series in New Zealand by 1-nil, received a major blow to their expectations of leveling the series ??on Friday.
India’s spearhead bowler in Tests, Ishant Sharma, is all set to miss out on the action in the second Test at ?Hagley Oval in Christchurch, due to an ankle injury.
Ishant was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the first Test match with figures of 5 for 68. According to reports from Cricbuzz, the lanky Indian pace bowler did not take part duri??ng the net sessions before the upcoming Test match, starting o??n Saturday, February 29.
In the absence of Ishant, fast bowler Umesh Yadav, in all likelihood, will feature in the lineup along with Jasprit Bumrah an??d Mohammad Shami. The Delhi pace bowler suffered the same injury back in Janua??ry, earlier this year.
After picking up his fifer, Sharma did not appear delighted, clai??ming that he did not sleep well in two days and was asked to feature in the Test match at Wellington.
Yadav last featured in an away test match back ?in 2018, during the Perth Test ma??tch, where India fielded a four-pronged pace attack, along with Ishant, Shami, and Bumrah.
The Vidarbha pacer held an impressive record in the home season for India in ?the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, where he clinched as many as 23 wickets in 4 games, at an astounding average of 13.65.
However, his record in Test matc??hes abroad may be disconcerting for the Indian fans. Yadav picked up 46 wickets in 17 matches with a marginal average of 42.19.
Ishant’s absence means India is ready to make wholesale changes in their bowling a?ttack with al?l-rounder Ravindra Jadeja likely to be preferred over Ravichandran Ashwin.
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