ICC World Test Championship final: Here's what Virat Kohli said on Indian batsmen

India ended as the runner-up in the ICC World Test Championship 2019-21 final, while New Zealand trumped emphatically. While experts feel that India's batting let it down, skipper Virat Kohli clarifies the same.

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Southampton, First Published Jun 24, 2021, 2:20 PM IST | Last Updated Jun 24, 2021, 2:23 PM IST

Team India toiled but came short of a triumph, as New Zealand emerged as the undisputed champion of Test cricket by winning the 2019-21 ICC World Test Championship final at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. With the game entering the reserve day, the Kiwi ultimately held its nerve, despite rain playing spoilsport for most of the Test.

As far as India's performance is concerned, experts feel that the side's batting let it down. Meanwhile, skipper Virat Kohli somewhat agreed with it, stating that his men did not take enough risks with the bat, trying to be over-cautious.

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"The mindset has to be to score runs and find ways to score runs. You can't be too worried about getting out because you are bringing the bowler into the game completely and not moving the game forward. We know that, as a batting unit, if we consistently put up 300 on the board, then it is a different kind of pressure on the opposition with the kind of bowlers that we have," he said during the post-game press conference, reports ESPNCricinfo.

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"The idea from here on will be to try to score runs and not worry about getting out in testing conditions. That's the only way you can score and put the opposition under pressure, otherwise, you're just literally standing there hoping that you don't get out and eventually, you will because you're not being optimistic enough. I think you have to take more risks and calculated risks and be confident about taking those risks against a quality bowling attack like New Zealand," he added.

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Also, young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was criticised for being careless at a point, going for an unwanted risk, leading to his wicket. Nonetheless, despite all of it, Kohli backed Pant for his optimism and asserted that the side would continue to support him in the coming matches.

"Rishabh is just going to be a very expressive player whenever he gets an opportunity. Whenever there is a situation that needs to be understood, I think he assesses it really well. When things don't come off, you can say that it was an error of judgment and that's acceptable in sport. We don't want him to lose his positivity or his optimism in changing the situation for the team, and that's where his USP lies, and we will definitely continue to back him to play that way and find ways to put pressure on the opposition and find ways to score runs, which is his natural game," he concluded.

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