WTC Final | Not in agreement of deciding best Test side over one game: Virat Kohli

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli is not in agreement of deciding the best Test side over one game after the Indian team lost the World Test Championship title by eight wickets against New Zealand at Ageas Bowl, Southampton on Wednesday.

Kohli believes the WTC Final should have been a three-match Test series as it would have been given a chance to the losing team to bounce back.

In fact, earlier India’s head coach Ravi Shastri and Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar had also spoken on the same lines. Meanwhile, it would have made all the sense to have a three-match Test series for the final of the World Test Championship as all the teams fought hard for more than two years to qualify for the final of the tournament.

India was the most consistent team as they won 12 matches out of the 17 they played and finished at the numero uno position in the points table with a winning percentage of 72.2. On the other hand, New Zealand finished in second place with seven wins from 11 matches and a winning percentage of 70.

However, the Kiwis were the better team in the WTC Final as they dominated the contest with the ball. India was skittled out for 217 runs in the first innings and then only could manage 170 runs in the second dig.

“Well, look, firstly, I’m not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game, to be very honest,” Kohli said. “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 into the series or totally blow away the other team. It can’t just be a pressure applied over two days of good cricket and then you suddenly are not a good Test side anymore. I don’t believe in that.”

Kohli continued, “I just believe that it[final] should be done over the course of three matches so that you as a side prepare accordingly and you have a chance to, as I said, either drive home the advantage or really test the other team out if you haven’t had a good first game.

India has been a consistent team in the red-ball version and the results are palpable as they have finished as the number one team in ICC Test rankings in the last five years after the annual update. New Zealand had recently reclaimed the top position after winning 1-0 against England.

Kohli added, “I think it has to be a hard grind and something that definitely needs to be worked on in the future to really — at the end of three matches, there’s effort, there’s ups and downs, there’s situations changing throughout the course of the series, a chance to rectify the things that you’ve done wrong in the first game and then really see who’s the better side over the course of a three-match series or something will be a good measure of how things really are, so we are not too bothered by this result because we understand, as I said, as a Test side what we’ve done over the last three, four years, not just over the last 18 months but over the last three, four years. So this is not a measure of who we are as a team and the ability and the potential we have had for so many years now.”