New Zealand‘s status as the very first World Test Champions was confirmed after Ross Taylor flicked the ball off Mohammad Shami in the deep square leg for a boundary on Wednesday evening at Rose Bowl in Southampton.
The Kane Williamson-led side easily chased down the target of 139 runs and handed India a defeat in the summit clash by eight wickets. After yet another loss in the ICC tournament, questions were raised at Virat Kohli’s captaincy as well as the team combination of India.
Even before the start of the WTC final, many experts and former cricketers had stressed over India’s playing XI, which featured only three seamers. India fielded pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Shami along with the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
After losing the mega contest, Kohli defended India’s bowling combination, stating that going in with a four-pronged pace attack was only possible if they had a fast-bowling allrounder.
Notably, the Black Caps also went with three seamers Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult and a fast-bowling allrounder, Kyle Jamieson.
Kohli asserted that the spinners would have come into play if the game time wasn’t lost due to rain.
“You need to have a fast-bowling allrounder for that. We’ve been successful with this combination in different conditions. We thought this was our best combination, and we had batting depth as well, and if there was more game time, the spinners would have come into the game more as well,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation.
The Delhi-lad opined that their batters would have scored more runs if the match had continued without interruptions.
“We lost only three wickets (on day one), but we could have got more runs if the play had gone on without the interruptions. Today, the Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and pushed us back, and we were probably 30 or 40 runs short,” he added.
