Ajinkya Rahane is back as the vice-captain for the upcoming India-England Test series with Virat Kohli returns to lead the team in the upcoming four-match Test series which is a part of the ongoing World Test Championship. England play India between February 5 to March 28 for four Tests, five T20Is, and three ODIs. Chennai will host the first two Tests. The final two Tests will be played at the newly built stadium in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad will host the T20I series followed by Pune for the ODI series.
Ahead of the first test from February 5 in Chennai, Rahane addressed the virtual press conference and spoke about India’s preparations for the series opener in Chennai. He said that India are right now focusing on the first Test and the series and that the World Test Championship finals is not a part of their thought process at the moment.
Not Thinking About World Test Championship At The Moment: Ajinkya Rahane
“See right now we are just focusing on this series and on this first Test here in Chennai. World Test Championship finals are still three-four months away, New Zealand played really well and they deserve to be playing the finals of the World Test Championship. We are playing against England now, it is all about taking it one game at a time. England is a very good team, we have to play good cricket, we will see what happens after this series,” said Rahane while replying to an ANI.
Meanwhile, New Zealand have reached the finals of the World Test Championship after the South Africa vs Australia series was postponed. They recently beat West Indies 2-0 in December to kick start their home season. They beat India 2-0 at home before the pandemic disrupted the entire cricket calendar for over 10 months.
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Meanwhile, if Team India are to make the finals of the WTC, they need to beat England by 2-1, 2-0, 3-1, 3-0, or 4-0, margin. While if England beat India by either 3-1, 3-0, or 4-0 they play the final at Lord’s against New Zealand in June.
Meanwhile, the first Test between India and England will be played behind closed doors in Chennai. For the second Test, 50 percent of the capacity crowd will be allowed inside the stadiums.
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