The former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has made a bold statement on the World Test championship on the eve of the title clash. Gambhir feels that the WTC is not as important as the 50 overs World Cup.
Previously many red-ball specialist players including Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ishant Sharma, have talked about; how important WTC is for them and addressed it as the World cup.
Recently the International Cricket Council ( ICC ) announced the schedule for the 2024-2031 cycle, in which WTC finals will be played every second year so we will witness as many as 4 WTC finals from the year 2025. Gautam Gambhir confessed that all-format players might not consider WTC as important as a World cup because it will be played very frequently.
The former India opener said that comparing WTC with the World cup is an “exaggeration” and WTC is just being hyped.
“It’s the inaugural World Test Championship, you’ll surely want to win it, both teams will want to win it but to compare it with the World Cup is a bit exaggerated.
“Perhaps it’s more exaggerated for those players who only play red-ball cricket. Those who play all formats might not consider it that important because they know it’ll come again soon. So, if it’s coming every other year, I don’t think it should be hyped or inflated too much,” Gambhir said.
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World Cup is considered important because a lot of things change in four years: Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir opined that the World cup is considered more important because it comes after a long wait of four years and the teams undergo a lot of changes during the period between the two tournaments. He also pinpointed the emotional aspect the world cup brings because of the long duration of 4 years.
“Whichever team plays well will surely win. But you can’t compare the World Test Championship to the World Cup because the latter comes every four years whereas the World Test Championship will be played every other year.
“We consider the World Cup that important because a lot of things change in four years. Those who played [in one] World Cup, can they maintain themselves at that level of performance after four years?
“Will they play or not, you never know, so it attains that importance. You must have seen that when teams are knocked out of a World Cup, a lot of people get very emotional,” concluded Gambhir.