Rohit Sharma in action during WTC Final 2023© AFP
Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma believes that the World Test Championship (WTC) Final can be a third-match series in the future after India were beaten in the summit clash by Australia at the Oval on Sunday. India lost seven wickets in the first session of Day 5 as Australia registered a brilliant 209-run win. In the aftermath of the match, Rohit was asked about possible changes to the WTC Final format and the India skipper believes that the summit clash of the tournament need not be one game.
“I would like to play the 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 Sharma said in the post-match press conference.
Scott Boland sparked a dramatic collapse as Australia hammered India by 209 runs to win the World Test Championship final at The Oval on Sunday. India, set a record 444 to win, resumed on 164-3.
But they collapsed to 234 all out, losing seven wickets for 70 runs inside 24 overs before lunch on the fifth day. Boland did the initial damage with two wickets in an over, including the prize scalp of Virat Kohli, on his way to figures of 3-46 in 16 overs. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon (4-41) then polished off the tail.
Australia captured the one major men’s cricket title that had previously eluded them, with Pat Cummins‘s side now heading into next week’s first Ashes Test against England in buoyant mood.
But this result left India, defeated by New Zealand in the inaugural 2021 WTC final in Southampton, still searching for the first piece of global silverware in a decade.
All cricket logic was against India, with a target of 444 way in excess of the highest score made by any side to win in the fourth innings in 146 years of Test history — the West Indies’ 418-7 against Australia at St John’s in 2003.
(With AFP inputs)
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