02.49 pm: We are in England and we are talking about the weather. The forecast for the rest of the week doesn’t look too good as well.

02.35 pm: We are not likely to get any cricket anytime soon. Nasser Hussain tells us on Star Sports the sixth day is going to be used, and it is miserable right now. “Proper rain even by England’s standards,” he adds but it is a good drying ground. Read up on the preview here:

WTC final: Kohli’s India, Williamson’s New Zealand face-off in a final searching for context

02.30 pm: On the flip side, the rain jokes have already started on Twitter.

02.20 pm: The very first update from Southampton is not a good one.

BCCI: “Unfortunately there will be no play in the first session on Day 1 of the ICC World Test Championship final”

02.15 pm: Hello all and welcome to the live coverage of the ICC World Test Championship Final. For the first time in the game’s oldest, longest format, there will be an official World Champion(s) crowned at the end of the next five (six) days. But, as we all worried, rain is set to play a major role at the very least on day one.

A two-year process designed to crown a Test champion and give fresh impetus to the oldest international format culminates in a five-day match starting in Southampton on Friday that is worth $1.6 million to the winning team.

New Zealand and India are the top two teams in the Test rankings but Kohli said on Thursday that a one-off game would not give a definitive answer as to who was the best.

“If you’re talking about Test cricket and deciding who is the best team in the world on one game over a period of five days, that is not the reality of the truth,” he said.

“It is not going to reflect anything for people who really understand the game and who know exactly what has gone on over the last four or five years and how the teams have fared.”