Kevin Pierersen thinks India are at a disadvantage: "New Zealand have had fantastic preparation for this World Test Championship final. They've played two Test matches against England, and basically outplayed them in both. You can't prepare for a Test match in England having been involved in an IPL that was called off a month ago and with no proper warm-up matches at all," Pietersen wrote in his blog for Betway Insider.
‘The Big Day is Here!’: BCCI Posts Inspirational Video Imploring Fans to Get Behind Team India For WTC Final | Watch it here
Key Battles To Watch Out For: The outcome of the match will depend on a number of mini-battles and match-ups and how they fare against each other over the duration of the encounter. We identify four such potential key battles from the mega clash. More here.
Tendulkar Names Indian Bowler Who Will Play Crucial Role: Team India has announced its team for the WTC final against New Zealand, and Sachin Tendulkar feels that one bowler from the team will have a crucial role to play. He also pointed out a bowler who can be quicker than one expects him to be. Read more here.
India have dominated against New Zealand winning 21 of the 59 matches and losing just 12. 16 of these wins have come at home while there have been 5 memorable wins in New Zealand. India have lost just two matches at home against New Zealand - interestingly, slow left-arm orthodox bowler Hedley Howarth picked 9 in Nagpur in 1969 to give New Zealand a massive win by 167 runs. The hero of the second win was also a spinner - John Bracewell - the right-arm off spinner picked six wickets in the second innings and with good support from Richard Hadlee took the visitors to a series-levelling 136-run win in Mumbai in 1988. Read more here
Kohli Picks Fab Five For WTC Final: India won five of their eight Tests over the two series with five bowlers in the playing 11. They managed to draw one Test and lost two matches, in one of which they picked four bowlers. Read more here
Ganguly's Advice to India: “If you dig into the record books and see India’s best overseas performances (save 2021 Australia), we have always won matches when we have batted first. It’s about a choice whether you want to face the pressure first up in adverse conditions or wait for the fourth innings," Ganguly told Aaj Tak. “Look at Leeds in 2002 or 2018 South Africa, we batted first in bowling friendly conditions, soaked in the initial pressure, put runs on the board and that’s how won those games.
Hello everyone! The D-Day has arrived. After two years of hard-work, there's a chance for India and New Zealand to be crowned as the history's first ever world Test champions. Virat Kohli's India and Kane Williamson's New Zealand will battle it out for the ultimate glory.
Southampton Weather Today, India vs New Zealand, World Test Championship (WTC) Final Latest Updates: Virat Kohli carries the expectations of a billion while cricket romantics will pin their hopes on Kane Williamson when India and New Zealand engage in a battle to create a lasting legacy in pristine whites in the inaugural World Test Championship final starting in Southampton from Friday. For the connoisseurs of the glorious game, Test cricket is the ultimate format and despite its aura, the 144-year-old history needed a facelift along with a context which the World Test Championship provided despite various bottlenecks, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Kohli, India’s most successful Test captain, a trophy-less cabinet doesn’t do justice to the champion performer that he has been for a decade.
Lest one forgets, he has been a fine leader in his own right even though Mahendra Singh Dhoni may forever remain a sentimental favourite.
Kohli needs a global triumph. Every captain needs it but perhaps the Indian captain wants it more.
It’s how history will remember him just like it remembers Dhoni with a lot of respect and utmost fondness for those heroic World title wins.
Williamson stands in his way with a bunch of fine cricketers and the most amiable set of players that one would come across in international cricket.
They are India’s rivals but when Williamson hits those cover drives, Devon Conway teases a Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja, Trent Boult gets one banana inswinger aimed at Rohit Sharma’s bootlaces, the crazy fans of a cricket-mad nation wouldn’t possibly be able to hate them.
These are ‘Gentlemen Cricketers’ who have grown on the fans bit by bit with their cricket and their conduct. It’s difficult not to love them, especially after their gut-wrenching World Cup defeat at the Lord’s two summers back.
If Williamson happens to stand with the ICC Test Mace on the Hampshire Bowl balcony, one might just smile and think that perhaps “Nice guys don’t always finish last”.
But after two years and half a dozen series later, a battle-hardened Indian team will give its all in a match, from which the winning team will also walk away with a USD 1.6 million windfall.
There are a number of cricketers, who wouldn’t practically have a shot at any other global trophy and for them it’s their ‘World Cup’ which they want to lay their hands on.
Cheteshwar Pujara would be ready to take more bruises on his body if Neil Wagner starts bowling short. Ajinkya Rahane has grown in stature after a series for the ages and he will squeeze that extra ounce of energy to make it count.
Ravichandran Ashwin is unlikely to play a white ball World Cup again and wouldn’t mind one bit if he can fool Williamson, Ross Taylor or the dogged Henry Nicholls with a carrom ball or a slider.
Ishant Sharma has grown 14 years older since that epic WACA spell to Ricky Ponting and India’s senior-most player deserves to win a World Championship as much as anyone else.
Man to man, there is very little to choose between the two teams even though playing New Zealand in conditions that aid seam and swing isn’t the easiest of tasks.
England found it out recently by losing a Test series and India have had a torrid experience, albeit in New Zealand where they lost two Tests inside three days.
But a final has its own set of pressures and no one would feel it more than Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, who would have the hardest job currently in Test cricket.
They would face the most under-rated but perhaps the best new ball pair in the business in Boult and Southee, who would make the new ball jag around and the old ball talk.
Rohit has had lot of success in India but the real battle would start with the WTC final followed by the England Test series where both his technique and temperament will be tested big-time.
Kyle Jamieson hasn’t been played till now but Williamson knows what kind of a nightmare he was with his steep back-of-length bounce generated from his 6 feet 9 inch frame.
If that’s not enough, Wagner will pound it in with stuff aimed at rib-cage enticing the batters to go for the hook and pull shots or take it on the body.
In fact, Wagner versus Rishabh Pant could be one intriguing battle, knowing his love for the fallen hook shot.
Pant’s self control and Wagner’s relentless probe will make for a great contest.
Similarly, New Zealand’s new star Conway would face a very different kind of challenge that Jasprit Bumrah will pose with awkward angles and the late swing that will be generated by Mohammed Shami.
Conway has, in fact, also prepared for Ashwin and Jadeja by sprinkling kitty litter on the practice pitches back to create rough which helps in getting the ball to turn and bounce. This match could be one for the keeps unless pacers from either sides engineer an anti-climax.
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| Rank | Team | Points | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England | 6088 | 277 |
| 2 | India | 6811 | 272 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 6048 | 263 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 7818 | 261 |
| 5 | Australia | 5930 | 258 |
| FULL Ranking | |||
