Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar believes India doesn’t owe New Zealand anything after they qualified for the WTC Final against Australia. India sealed their berth in the WTC Final for the second time in a row after they won the series against Australia by 2-1, following a dull draw at Ahmedabad.
On the other hand, New Zealand won the thrilling first Test match against Sri Lanka by two wickets on Monday, which confirmed India’s place in the final. If Sri Lanka had won against New Zealand by 2-0, they would have reached the final.
However, Gavaskar feels India made it to the final of the WTC as they played outstanding cricket in the last two years.
Reacting to India’s qualification, Gavaskar told India Today: “I don’t think India owe New Zealand anything. India have played outstanding cricket over the years to qualify, to be the No.2 team, whatever you might say.
“New Zealand won, fine, it’s good for New Zealand cricket, but, Gavaskar added, “I don’t think Indian cricket owes New Zealand cricket any thank you or anything of that sort. Because India has played quite outstanding cricket over the last two years since the 2021 World Test Championship final and therefore, they deserve to be in the finals on their own and not with anybody’s help.”
On the other hand, the Little Master also showered praise on Virat Kohli, who scored a magnificent knock of 186 runs and thus was awarded the Player of the Match. Gavaskar added Kohli never looked out of form in the last couple of seasons though he wasn’t getting a big score.
“Every great batter thinks about a hundred. A century is a minimum price he keeps for his wicket. The way Kohli was batting in the last two-and-a-half years when he didn’t score a century, he was batting well, scored seven or eight fifties.”
“So it never seemed that he was out of form. Gavaskar continued, “The only thing that was happening was that he was getting out on his first mistake.”
Gavaskar added that Kohli started his innings slowly but grew in confidence after settling at the crease.
“He started slightly slowly, where he was trying to figure out the pitch and the bowling. Then he played a few shots after getting set and tried to play even more shots after he had scored a century.”
Kohli will now be seen in action in the three-match ODI series against Australia.
