India will take on New Zealand in the final of the World Test Championship next month and as the anticipation continues to rise with every passing day, so does the realization that winning the WTC Final will be the perfect opportunity for the Men in Blue to establish themselves as the best team in the world in the purest format of the sport. Following consecutive series wins against top dogs Australia and England and in challenging conditions, the Indian team look to be in pretty good shape.
However, with that being said, the last time India took on New Zealand in a Test series away from home, they ended up losing 2-0. That was India’s only series loss during the World Test Championship cycle.
Reliable batsman Cheteshwar Pujara recently called the World Test Championship the ‘World Cup of the Test format’ and says the team desperately wants to win it and it will be a dream come true for the Men in Blue.
“It’s a dream for all of us because WTC is indeed the World Cup of Test format and we all would like to win this trophy,” Pujara told cricket.com.
He also went on to talk about the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia and feels happy to be able to contribute to India’s tremendous success on that tour.
“Any tour of Australia is always a big challenge and very important for us. In that sense, the 2018 win was the most special. And then, of course, our last series win was also very special because the team was relatively weak as some of the senior players were not there and some of them were injured and not available for all the matches. As a team, it was a huge achievement and personally, it was very satisfying,” he said.
The 33-year-old further added that though he’s happy his plans clicked in Australia, it doesn’t mean that he can rest on his laurels.
“Fortunately for me, whatever I had planned for those tours did click. Australia is one of the best teams. Their bowling attack is one of the best in world cricket and doing well against them gives you some pride but you can’t be sitting on past laurels. You have to start afresh for a new challenge,” Pujara concluded.
