India and New Zealand are facing off in the historic first-ever ICC World Test Championship final at Ageas Bowl Southampton. The game started on 19th June a day after the scheduled day because Day 1 of the high voltage clash washed out due to rain. The New Zealand captain Kane Williamson got lucky with the toss and opted to bowl as the pitch looked pace friendly, Inviting Indians to bat first in the summit clash.
Meanwhile, the Indian openers had a great start as they added up 62 runs for the opening partnership. They batted really well against the Kiwi pace attack consisting of 4 frontline pacers (Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Kyle Jamieson) and an all-rounder (Colin De Grandhomme). Kiwis bowled well picking 3 wickets and Kohli and company batted well scoring 146 runs, overall it was a great day of Test cricket for cricketing fans.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) uploaded a video on Twitter on June 20 in which Many New Zealand and Indian players revealed the name of their favorite Test cricketer. Indian Wicket-Keeper Rishabh Pant chose legendary Australian wicketkeeper-batsman, Adam Gilchrist, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah selected Australian pacer, Glenn McGrath.
Sachin Tendulkar occurs as a prominent choice
All-rounder Colin de Grandhomme’s ideal is Aussie Andre Symonds and Pacer Neil Wagner’s idealizes Allan Donald a lot. The most popular choice for the favorite test batsman was the God of cricket; Sachin Tendulkar, as many as 4 players, including Cheteshwar Pujara, BJ Watling, Ishant Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin picked Master Blaster as their ideal.
Adam Gilchrist, Allan Donald, Sachin, Sachin and Sachin 😅
The @BLACKCAPS and @BCCI stars reveal their favourite Test players.#WTC21 #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/hwZVezfbMf
— ICC (@ICC) June 20, 2021
Meanwhile, India’s captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane were looking in good touch scoring 44 and 29 runs respectively helping India reach 146/3 on Day 2. They would hope to bat at the same pace and dominate the opposition bowling lineup helping India reach a marquee score in the first Innings.
The main concern of Day 3 of the match has to be rain as the weather at Southampton is very uncertain. It can spoil the game and poor lighting conditions can delay the match between India and New Zealand.
