Just a few hours later, India and New Zealand will enter the Rose Bowl ground in Southampton to face each other in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final. Both teams are prepared for the final battle, which the whole world would be focusing on.
Ahead of the summit clash, players of both India and New Zealand took part in a fun segment where they were asked to name their favourite cricket stadiums in the world. The official Twitter handle of ICC shared the video on Twitter, where the superstars can be seen revealing their favourite grounds. It was also well-received by fans, who flooded the comments section with their well-wishes to both teams.
The video features stars like Ravichandran Ashwin, Shubman Gill, Tim Southee, Jasprit Bumrah and few others.
Team India’s young sensation Shubman Gill was also spotted in the video revealing his favourite Test cricket venue in the world. He picked the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) as his most loved stadium because he made his Test debut there.
“The Test matches I have played, like all the seven Test matches, if I have to go through that, it has to be my debut in MCG. It has to be my favourite venue till now,” said Shubman.
New Zealand’s veteran pacer Tim Southee expressed that Lords Cricket Ground is his favourite, stating that he always enjoys bowling at Lords.
“Lord’s. Just the history behind it and just turning up in Lord’s and somewhere that’s a very special place to play. Played there a few times, and it’s somewhere where we always enjoy,” said Southee.
Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah picked Johannesburg and said: “Johannesburg. I just played one game over there, and I would like to play more games over there.”
Senior Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin named his home ground MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai as his favourite ground. But he also picked MCG, stating that it’s always special to play in Melbourne.
“It has to be my home ground, Chennai. Have played all my cricket there, so one of those venues,” said Ashwin
“And I think it’s quite special to play at MCG. Something about it, I can’t really put a finger and say what it is. My first away Test was also at MCG back in 2011, so could be that, but I quite enjoy playing there. It’s like a theatrical feeling,” he added.
Explosive Indian batter Rishabh Pant picked Sydney Cricket Ground as his most loved venue. Pant asserted that he scored a brilliant hundred at SCG in 2018, and it was one of his finest memory of Test cricket.
“My favourite venue is SGC in Australia. I scored 159 not out when we played in 2018. That was my one of the finest memory of Test cricket,” said Pant.
Watch the full video here:
🏴 @HomeOfCricket
🇦🇺 @MCG
🇿🇦 @BullringZAPlayers in the #WTC21 Final name their favourite stadiums to play Test cricket in 🏟#INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/wPBRmrrKiq
— ICC (@ICC) June 18, 2021
