Not in agreement of deciding best Test side over one game: Virat Kohli

[Gollum]

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Virat Kohli added his voice to the chorus of calls asking for future World Test Championships to be multi-game affairs. The India captain echoed thoughts of his head coach Ravi Shastri and former skipper Sachin Tendulkar after his side were defeat in the inaugural final of this format. It was India's second loss in a major tournament final under Kohli but he clarified that his opinion was not based on the outcome but that a one-off game to decide the best team from a tournament played over a two-year phase was not and may not give an authentic portrayal of the character of the two finalist teams or allow a narrative to build over the series.

 

"Well, look, firstly, I'm not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game, to be very honest," Kohli said. "If it is a Test series, it has to be a test of character over three Tests, which team has the ability to come back into the series or totally blow away the other team. It can't just be a pressure applied over two days of good cricket and then you suddenly are not a good Test side anymore. I don't believe in that."

 

India finished the protracted league stage of the tournament as table toppers with 520 points across six series, five of which they won. Incidentally, two of their recent series wins, against Australia and England, were achieved after going a game down. Kohli reasoned that a series allowed narratives to ebb and flow, for teams to come back or double down on their advantage to establish superiority.

 

"I just believe that it[final] should be done over the course of three matches so that you as a side prepare accordingly and you have a chance to, as I said, either drive home the advantage or really test the other team out if you haven't had a good first game.

 

"I think it has to be a hard grind and something that definitely needs to be worked on in the future to really -- at the end of three matches, there's effort, there's ups and downs, there's situations changing throughout the course of the series, a chance to rectify the things that you've done wrong in the first game and then really see who's the better side over the course of a three-match series or something will be a good measure of how things really are, so we are not too bothered by this result because we understand, as I said, as a Test side what we've done over the last three, four years, not just over the last 18 months but over the last three, four years. So this is not a measure of who we are as a team and the ability and the potential we have had for so many years now."

 

Kohli referenced the quality of the rain-affected game in Southampton to questions about the appetite levels for a three-match final amidst other bilateral commitments. "I mean, if you saw the way the game went with whatever time we got on the field, as well, why wouldn't you want to see two more Tests of the same teams battling it out and eventually being the winners of the World Test Championship? I think historically all the great series that you've seen in Test cricket, you remember them over a period of three matches or five matches perhaps, but two teams going against each other and those series become memorable.

"I think this definitely has to be brought in. I'm not saying this because we're not on the winning side, but just for Test cricket and for this saga to be absolutely memorable, I think it has to happen over a period of three games minimum so that you have a series to remember because there are going to be ups and downs through and through with two quality sides going at each other knowing that there's so much on the line."

 

Incidentally, the ICC, which has announced a single-match Test Championship final until the end of the 2024-31 cycle, has already acknowledged the merits of a series but said it wasn't logistically feasible. "The reality of the international cricket schedule is we are just not going to have [a situation where] blocking out a month or so for all the teams in the tournament for the final is realistic," said ICC's acting CEO Geoff Allardice. "That's why the one-match final was decided upon. Why it is quite exciting is because it brings something new. Here we are - we've got a one-off Test match to decide the best team in the world over this two-year cycle."

 

Winning captain Kane Williamson offered a contrarian view to Kohli and Shastri, talking up the 'unique' and 'fickle' dynamics of a one-off final. "I suppose the exciting part of finals is that anything can happen," he said. ""We know how fickle cricket is and we've seen it in other competitions, in other World Cups and in all other bits and pieces. The one-off factor does bring a unique dynamic, which does make it exciting and all these sorts of things, and on any given day anything can happen. We've been on all different sides of that statement.

 

"I suppose there's arguments for both sides, and I guess the challenge would be scheduling and that series amongst a lot of cricket that's already on, but no doubt the more cricket that you have perhaps within a series, the more you do find out and the more it does reveal itself, but in the same way it was a really exciting match. The first time that there's been this competition on and both teams were fully geared for the game, and it was a brilliant game of cricket."

[Gollum]

Test Rankings Table

POS	TEAM	RATING
1	New Zealand	123
2	India	119
3	England	109
4	Australia	108
5	Pakistan	94
6	South Africa	88
7	West Indies	78
8	Sri Lanka	78
9	Bangladesh	46
10	Zimbabwe	35

[Gollum]

We need to beat Eng by 2 tests margin to get back #1 spot. 3-1 or 2-0....even a 3-2 series win means we get stuck at 122. 

 

NZ is scheduled to tour Ind in Dec. 

[Number]

In short he is saying the game was nothing but a pointless excercise.

Probably his team played it with the same attitude towards it.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Number

[Forever Indian]

Even a World Cup is decided through One final in just a Day, so what is his point? Atleast in tests most often than not the better team wins battling over 5 days.

[coffee_rules]

F uck him

[The Realist]

Like Kohli would have won a test series v NZ in Eng anyway. Serial choker.

 

Empty words by a dimwit

[Vilander]

5 hours ago, Gollum said:

We need to beat Eng by 2 tests margin to get back #1 spot. 3-1 or 2-0....even a 3-2 series win means we get stuck at 122. 

 

NZ is scheduled to tour Ind in Dec. 

I bet India will win in England and absolutely shaft NZ, would mean Jack ****. No one will care. 

[rkt.india]

5 hours ago, Gollum said:

We need to beat Eng by 2 tests margin to get back #1 spot. 3-1 or 2-0....even a 3-2 series win means we get stuck at 122. 

 

NZ is scheduled to tour Ind in Dec. 

So NZ got how many points for one game?

[rkt.india]

5 hours ago, Number said:

In short he is saying the game was nothing but a pointless excercise.

Probably his team played it with the same attitude towards it.

He will get 5 tests to do that against England.

[rkt.india]

4 hours ago, Forever Indian said:

Even a World Cup is decided through One final in just a Day, so what is his point? Atleast in tests most often than not the better team wins battling over 5 days.

WC is a tournament. WTC isn't a tournament. WTC is a result of test series' played overtime.

[A1Singga]

Actually he makes a good point.

For all the money and power BCCI has they could have done that in England. They don't have hindsight in this regard, it's like they are just looking at the viewer ship rating and calculating how much money they have made without any care for the dignity of Indian cricket. I wonder what their reasons could be. Regardless, I would rather BCCI use its power to shift the balance in our favor than just sitting idle.  phaltu me ch*tiya bane ka fayeda

I just hope the T20 world xuo has a qualifier round similar to IPL for the top two teams . So that even if India chokes in knockout matches they would still have the chance.

[SK_IH]

Completely agree with him.  Imagine if the final was scheduled in Sri Lanka & the final was preceded by test series between India & Sri Lanka. Randi rona alag level ka hota

 

 

[Sandeep99]

A perennial and a sore loser. What a sorry attitude to have for a sportsman. 

[rtmohanlal]

• sort of agree with Kohli in this  .... no need of a 'one  test final'  to determine 'the best  test team over a period of time'... to determine total points to each team  on the basis of ' how many tests they played , how many they won home & abroa+d each(more weightage to  abroad wins ,   more weightage to  defeating higher ranked teams  etc etc  over a selected period of time and then declaring the  'team with the most points' as the winner makes more sense.

Having said that this dumb ass have no excuse for this   pathetic performance. This result is the  culmination of his  dumb ass actions   ever since he took over captaincy.

He has failed miserably to develop  an all conditional team.  Proven inadequacy Rohit got   'called back' again &  again to open  in SENA in  tests,  retaining the 'certified failure' at no:3   irrespective of conditions,  not providing  enough chances to promising rookies to trace out much better batsmen than the current senior  batsmen all contributed to this.What not , he himself is  reeling from the extra burden of captaincy...

[ShoonyaSifar]

The tune would have been totally different had we won the same final.

 

Good or bad, the format was agreed 3 years back. Yes, due to the ongoing covid situation, rules have been tweaked but again that is for everyone. Being a new concept, it will keep evolving. To whine about it after a shameless surrender is a Kohli speciality. Not the first time this is happening. Will do everything to deflect attention from his pathetic leadership in the last session.

 

Why hasn't this joker been fired already? 

[Sean Bradley]

Agree that Final should be a 3 match series between top two teams on a neutral venue, but doesn't agree that he's trying to brush his inefficiencies and clueless selections under the carpet during this match by putting forward this one point over and over again. 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Sean Bradley

[ShoonyaSifar]

25 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

Completely agree with him.  Imagine if the final was scheduled in Sri Lanka & the final was preceded by test series between India & Sri Lanka. Randi rona alag level ka hota

 

 

Well, we also had the option of asking Eng to split our series into two parts. At least a test before the WTC final, and then the rest after it. Or to insist on proper practice games. We chose neither and the captain was content with intra squad match. Can't whine about.

[ShoonyaSifar]

1 minute ago, Sean Bradley said:

Agree that Final should be a 3 match series between two top teams on a neutral venue, but doesn't agree that he's trying to brush his inefficiencies and clueless selections under the carpet and putting forward this one point over and over again. 

The worst part is both Shastri and Kohli started to talk about a 3 test final only recently. In all likelihood, they had given up even before leaving for England. That reflected in their pathetic selection and tactics

[Lone Wolf]

F*** sore loser.  Chokli managed to lose this test in barely under 3 days when Draw was written all over it. 

Final is always supposed to be one off..  Someone in PC should have called him Chokli. 

We have created new records in terms of choke now that I don't think anyone is matching in coming years.