In a huge disappointment to the fans who were waiting for the action to begin in the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand, the rain has played a spoilsport and the first day has been washed out completely.
To compensate for the loss of play on the first day, the play will begin at the scheduled time at 3 pm IST (10:30 am local). Since the WTC final also has a reserve day marked to cover loss of play such as these, the match would not be started half an hour early, a practice is more popular in Test matches.
Rain was always expected to hamper the big clash between the top two sides as the weather prediction was suggesting thunderstorm across all days of the Test match but the abandonment of the very first day without a ball being bowled left all disappointed.
India have already announced their playing XI for the clash and have included both the spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin along with the pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami.
On the other hand, New Zealand have picked Ajaz Patel over Mitchell Santner in the 15-man squad along with Kane Williamson, BJ Watling, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, who were rested or missed the second Test of the series against England.