Anupama Nair
www.mediaeyenews.com
In the last part I spoke about history of Test Cricket and advent of Test Cricket in India, and India’s journey to greatness in the Test arena. In this part, I am going to talk about World Test Championship and India’s and New Zealand’s journey to finals.
For many years, Test lovers bemoaned the fact, that there was no World Cup or similar tournaments in Test Cricket. Thus, the Word Test Championship was born. The idea was developed soon after the World Cup in 2019 in England. It’s a campaign that had started when the world would have never imagined a mere virus and it’s waves would cause devastation for nearly 18 months. “It was a time when the pandemic was a distant nightmare” and now it is about to end at a time when the world is a different world with social distancing, sanitizers and masks and also maybe crowd free matches, thanks to China and Corona. After a process that nearly lasted for two years, Kohli is set to lead India against Williamson’s New Zealand side in the final match held from June 18-22 in Southampton. If history is to believed till now India has never won in Southampton. Hope this time they do.
The ICC inaugurated the maiden Test Competition in August 2019. The main idea was to infuse life and increase greater audience interest in the format at a time when T20 has become the most popular and prime-time friendly. However, Test series like the Ashes between Australia and England or the Border-Gavaskar Trophy where India take on Australia , or any India matches are widely followed, but the same cannot be said about all the Test matches played around the world. Nine of the ICC’s twelve full member countries — Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies — were in the race to lift the Cup and be the best Test side. The Championship started off in magnificent fashion with the Ashes and the games between Sri Lanka and New Zealand before India joined the race in West Indies.
Each team play six other opponents, three at home and three away. Each series comprise between two and five matches. Therefore, all the participants do not play the same number of Tests, but play the same number of series. At the end of the league stage the top two teams play in the final. Each match is for a duration of five days. After Corona forced many matches to be cancelled, ICC changed the points system to account for the variation in the number of series played per team and Percentage of Points or PoP was adopted. Only India, England and Sri Lanka completed its six Test series and India topped the table with a 72.2% PoP. Out of the possible 720 points that Kohli’s men could win, they succeeded in getting 520 points. New Zealand on the other hand were second with 420 points out of a possible 600, or 70% PoP.
India’s WTC outing began in August 2019 with the team tasting success with its tour of West Indies with a 2-0 result. Then India hosted the Proteas and won 3-0 whitewash. Then came two Tests against Bangladesh in India that ended 2-0 again. Then came India’s only loss in the WTC as New Zealand handed out a 0-2 result. We are facing the same rivals in the finals, but the stadium full of Indian supporters is a plus point. The next series created history as an injury-ridden team defeated the mighty Aussies in their own backyard in two consecutive series 2-1. Their journey ended when they defeated England 3-1 at home.
Unlike India, New Zealand’s road to the World Test Championship final got off to a disastrous start in Sri Lanka. They luckily managed a 1-1 result after losing the first match. Then they had a horror tour of their neighbors Australia and the result was 3-0. New Zealand did not have to wait too much longer for more points though, beating Virat Kohli’s India 2-0 at home. Then they did not play, any matches for nearly ten months and was placed fourth in the table. But they bounced back with the series against the West Indies 2-0 being the result, followed by defeating Pakistan with the same result. They got 420 points as a result and Australia’s loss to India ensured their place in the finals.
If you see the journey of the two teams, India definitely had an upper hand. However, we need to remember it is how we play in the finals and the result that count. Yes, we have miles to go before we sleep…
In the next part I will be talking more about the championship and what experts feel about the match.
(to be continued..)
Interesting information. Liked it.