India’s World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev believes he would have preferred more than one match to decide such an important title of World Test Championship.
The WTC began back in 2019 and it would have been nice if the winner was decided after a three-match Test series.
All the teams gave their best as India and New Zealand qualified for the finals. India was the most consistent team of the tournament as they won 12 matches out of the 17 they played and had a winning percentage of 72.2. On the other hand, New Zealand won seven matches and had a win percentage of 70.
Kapil Dev said while talking to Mid-Day, “I would have preferred more than just one match to decide such an important title. Of course, these days it is not a big thing to prepare for a match. It helps to play a few matches in those conditions but that can’t be an excuse. Maybe, Lord’s would have a better venue than Rose Bowl because the ground has great history. Even Manchester [Old Trafford] would have been a good choice but there is something about celebrating a win at Lord’s.”
“Why not? It is something the ICC has done to popularise Test matches. There will be good cricket for the public, I am sure. I feel three-Test finals would have been great.”
On the other hand, the former legendary all-rounder reckons that one has to be tactically good and technically sound in the tough English conditions.
“Test cricket is about sessions. Each can be intriguing because of the weather factor. Within minutes, it changes from sunny to cloudy. So you have to be tactically good and technically sound when you play in England.”
“I won’t say batsmen are better than the bowlers. You have to have a balance. India look a superior batting side. How they tackle the conditions is important. To me, India’s batting will hold the key. The bowlers provide a solid back-up to India’s cricket campaigns these days but the quality of batsmen will stand out in the final.”
Meanwhile, there is no doubt that there were some loopholes in the ICC scoring system for the World Test Championship and many former and current players also questioned the same. It would be interesting to note if the governing body will rectify the same in the next cycle of WTC.
