London: For the second time in succession, Team India were outplayed in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC).
If it was New Zealand who handed an 8-wicket defeat to Virat Kohli’s team in the maiden final in 2021, the Australians crushed Rohit Sharma’s men by 209 runs in the second WTC final at the KIA Oval here on Sunday.
Australia thus became the first team to win all four ICC tournaments — 50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy and WTC.
In the four innings across two WTC finals, India failed to cross 300 even once. The bowlers didn’t have a good game this time around, letting Australia pile up 469 after Rohit won the toss and opted to field first in conditions which were conducive for fast bowlers.
But rather than pointing a figure inwards, the Indian captain pointed to the WTC format.
Rohit said after the Indian batsmen’s meek surrender on the final day that a 3-match WTC final would be ideal, rather than a one-off Test for the next cycle.
“I would like to play a 3-Test match series for the WTC Final. We worked hard and we fought but we played just 1 game. I think a 3-match series would be ideal in the next WTC cycle,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.
Rohit may have a point, and is not the first cricketer to advocate a three-match final, but could have chosen a different occasion to air his views. Today, he sounded like a sore loser to many fans and observers.
Rohit admitted that the bowlers let the team down after the opening session on Day 1.
“We spoke of a lot of things… We spoke of bowling tighter lines… But it didn’t work out. Things like that can happen,” Rohit said without being to harsh on his players.
“It’s (another final loss) disappointing for us. We would like to go one better. But you cannot take anything away from what we’ve done in the two years (2021-2023 WTC cycle). It’s a great effort. A lot of players took part in those series. We’ll keep our heads high and fight for the next championship as well,” Rohit remarked.
