WTC Final- 'We are not too bothered by this result', says Virat Kohli
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However, Indian skipper Virat Kohli feels that the Test format cannot be fully utilised through a one-off match, either it is a series or the final of the World Test Championship final.
New Zealand on Wednesday defeated India by eight wickets to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, played at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton. New Zealand's two most experienced batters – Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor – guided the Kiwis to their first ICC trophy since 2000.
However, Indian skipper Virat Kohli feels that the Test format cannot be fully utilised through a one-off match, either it is a series or the final of the World Test Championship final.
"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," Kohli said after India's eight-wicket loss in Southampton to New Zealand.
Indian head coach Ravi Shastri pitched the idea of a three-match series. Several former India players also supported Shastri's idea. On the eve of the match, skipper Kohli said that the team will take it as another Test match and that the outcome won't carry too much significance.
"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," Kohli added.
"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."
In the past few Test series, Team India lost the opening Test match only to stage a comeback and win the series.
According to Kohli, worthy winners can be decided with two more Tests instead of a one-off match.
"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," the India captain pointed out.
"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," the India captain pointed out.