Former England skipper Michael Vaughan who doesn’t mince his words, has come hard at Indian skipper Virat Kohli who had called for multi-game finals as far as the future ICC World Test Championships are concerned. Following India’s defeat against New Zealand on the reserve day of the WTC final, Kohli said that it would have been more appropriate if the final was a three-match affair.
“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 team battling it out and eventually being the winners of the World Test Championship,” Kohli said after the Blackcaps were crowned the inaugural World Test Champions.
Replying to Kohli’s suggestion, Vaughan said that with such a tight schedule all across the world it is highly impossible to conduct a three-match affair. He also took an indirect dig at the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Kohli by enquiring whether they can reduce the length of the Indian Premier League to accommodate the extra matches of the WTC final.
“Where in the schedule would it fit in ?? Are the IPL going to reduce the year of the final tournament by 2 weeks so it could fit in? Doubt it…. Finals are one-off games where teams/individuals know they have to deliver…. That’s what makes them so great,” Vaughan said.
Coming back to the WTC final, New Zealand completed an 8-wicket victory on the reserve day of the match. After taking a 32 runs lead in the first innings, the New Zealand bowlers found their mark early on Day 6 and skittled out the Indians for just 170 runs. After a couple of hiccups, New Zealand managed to chase the target of 139 down with 8 wickets left and fittingly Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor were there to see off the chase.
Unlike the rest of the ICC tournaments, the ICC Test Championship was held over a course of two years but many bilateral series in the Championship season had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence New Zealand ended up playing just 12 matches while India had played a total of 18 matches in their run up to the finals.