After Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli calls for best-of-three to decide ICC World Test Championship final

The 2019-21 ICC World Test Championship final was won by New Zealand. Meanwhile, India continues its trend of losing the opening Test, while this was a one-off. On the same note, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has called for best-of-three WTC finals.

Team Newsable

Southampton, First Published Jun 24, 2021, 1:49 PM IST

The Indians have been left heartbroken after New Zealand edged past them to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final. The Kiwis won it by eight wickets on Day 6 at the Rose Bowl in Southampton on Wednesday.

Interestingly, India continued its trend of losing the opening Test of a series. However, since the final was a one-off, India feels the pain. While earlier, Indian head coach Ravi Shastri had called for the best-of-three finals to decide the winner, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has now backed the same following the defeat.

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"I am not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game. 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, you suddenly, you are not a good Test side anymore. I don't believe in it," said Kohli during the post-match presentation.

"It has to be a hard grind and something that definitely needs to be worked around in the future. At the end of three matches, where there's effort, there's ups and downs; there's situations changing during the course of the series, a chance to rectify the things you have done in the first game, and then really see who is the better side over the course of a three-match series or something, will be a good measure of how things really are," he added.

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Kohli also backed it with the fact that since the quality of the Test was phenomenal, especially with the competitiveness, it makes sense to have best-of-three finals. "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?" he wondered.

Meanwhile, Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson reckoned that a one-off final had its own charm and thrill. "The one-off factor does bring a unique dynamic, which does make it exciting and all these sorts of things, and on any given day, anything can happen. We've been on all different sides of that statement," he considered.

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Speaking on the best-of-three finals concept, ICC CEO Geoff Allardice had stated earlier that it would mean blocking the calendar for all the Test-playing nations, in return chocking the calendar. "I suppose there's arguments for both sides, and I guess the challenge would be scheduling that series among a lot of cricket that's already on, but no doubt, the more cricket that you have within a series, the more you do find out and the more it does reveal itself," he had said.

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Last Updated Jun 24, 2021, 1:49 PM IST

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After Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli calls for best-of-three to decide ICC World Test Championship final

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