India is all set to lock horns with Australia in their second consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) Final. Notably, India also played the summit clash of the inaugural edition of the tournament, where they were defeated by the eventual champions New Zealand. Ahead of the marquee event scheduled in London from June 7, India’s star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed the key moment on India’s road to WTC Final 2023.
Speaking to International Cricket Council (ICC), Ashwin said that it was the Test match against Bangladesh in December 2022 that played a significant role in helping India reach the WTC Final 2023. He even shared a behind the scene anecdote after the win and opened up about the reaction of India’s head coach Rahul Dravid post the surprising victory.
“We’ve had our moments in this last cycle, especially where we could have been knocked out quite a few times and have just held tight. I think the moment of the WTC, I don’t know irrespective of what happens in this game, would be Rahul (Dravid) bhai’s speech after the Bangladesh Test that we had at Mirpur,” said Ashwin.
“I think we were just going to be knocked out of the WTC race in that particular Test, so we finished the game and I came out and was really pumped up, I don’t think we expected… nobody expected us to win, even inside the dressing room. Rahul just said, ‘It was a great game of cricket and Ash, we were never in doubt’. That is probably the moment of the WTC cycle as far as I’m concerned,” he added.
It is worth mentioning that Ashwin played a crucial role alongside Shreyas Iyer in India’s victory against Bangladesh. The off-spinner added 42 runs off 62 balls when India were 74/7 and required 71 runs to win. Meanwhile, Shreyas contributed resilient 29 runs off 46 deliveries and held one end tight for India in a must-win game.
Apart from his batting, the major highlight of Ashwin in the WTC 2021-23 has been his bowling. The 36-year-old spinner is India’s leading wicket-taker in their campaign, with 61 wickets in 13 matches.
