The star Indian batsman Virat Kohli hasn’t won an ICC trophy as a captain till now. The World Test Championship final against New Zealand was the third occasion where the Indian team led by Virat Kohli failed to win the trophy after clearing the league stage. New Zealand defeated India in the WTC final at Southampton to become the inaugural World Test Champions.
After the loss against the Blackcaps in the WTC final, everybody is mainly blaming the Indian batting line-up as no batter was able to touch a fifty-run mark in such a high-profile clash. The highest run-scorer for the side in the first inning and overall in the Test match was Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane with 49 runs and in the second innings Wicketkeeper, Rishabh Pant was the highest run-scorer with 41 runs.
Skipper Virat Kohli has been criticized a lot for struggling against his Royal Challengers Bangalore comrade Kyle Jamieson who dismissed captain Kohli in both innings. Kohli scored 44 crucial runs in the first innings and only 13 runs contribution in the second innings where India needed the captain to contribute the most.
🙌 CHAMPIONS 🙌#WTC21 Final | #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/MnqoZ6XzKy
— ICC (@ICC) June 23, 2021
Former India batsman Arun Lal shared his opinions on the WTC final and has defended Virat Kohli and stated that all the batsmen looked vulnerable against Duke’s balls.
“Look, Virat made a mistake, and that happens. There’s so much pressure on him, while the ball was also moving a lot in such conditions. Before that, he was covering for the ball that came in as he was lbw last time. Now, if you are unlucky, you will nick it. Besides, that was a very good spell by (Kyle) Jamieson (in the second innings),” he told The telegraph.
“We can’t really say it was a bad shot. Your foot is two feet away from the ball and you still hit it for a boundary, everyone then says it’s a classy shot. But you miss a similar kind of ball and it takes the edge, people will then say, ‘No footwork, playing away from the body… Horrible shot. That’s not the way you should deal with it. Besides, all our batsmen looked vulnerable against the Duke’s ball. Why blame Virat alone?” he added.
New Zealand win the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship
Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to invite India bat first in the overcast conditions and dismissed Virat Kohli and company at the score of 217. When New Zealand came to bat their opener did a great job however team India made a good comeback and at a point in time NZ was at 192/7 but their tailender batted beautifully, especially Tim Southee scored important 30 runs to get a 32 runs lead and helping The blackcaps score 249 runs.
The Indian batter’s struggle continued in the 3rd innings of the match and they failed miserably by scoring only 170 runs. They gave Kiwis the Target of 139 runs which NZ chased comfortably with losing only two wickets. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor the two best batsmen on the team led the Kiwis towards the victory.
The Indian team is all set to face their next challenge against England. As they are scheduled to play a five-match Test series in England against England.