Team India and Australia will meet in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 Final. The match will be played from June 7 at The Kia Oval in London.
While India would be aiming to end their ICC title drought of a decade, and also to win the World Test Championship final after losing to New Zealand in 2021 in Southampton, this is Australia’s big chance to cement the legacy of some of their players with the biggest prize in Test cricket just ahead of the important Ashes series against England.
India’s loss to New Zealand in the 2021 edition of the WTC final is still hurtful. Some of the players who featured in that game, though, will not be part of this year’s edition.
Here are 3 Indians who played in 2021 WTC final but will miss the 2023 WTC final:
Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant suffered an unfortunate car accident in late December last year. While thankfully he came out of that near-fatal accident alive, he suffered plenty of injuries, the most serious and big ones were on his knees and legs for which he had to undergo two surgeries on his knee for tears.
A BCCI official has said that the wicket-keeper needs “another 6-7 months” to start walking without crutches.
“Rishabh is recovering really well. But it is going to take another 6-7 months at least to be walking and stretching again. World Cup is a bit of a stretch for him at the moment. We just want him to recover completely before focusing on cricket again. It will take a lot of time for him to be back in competitive cricket. Rahul and Ishan are the two keepers we are looking at for now,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.
This means that not only the Test Championship Final 2023, but Pant will also miss the World Cup 2023.
In the 2021 World Test Championship final against the Kiwis, Pant scored 4 and 41, which was the highest score in India’s second innings. KS Bharat, or perhaps even KL Rahul, will keep the wicket in 2023 World Test Championship final.
Jasprit Bumrah
The leader of India’s pace attack, Jasprit Bumrah, will be missing the WTC final 2023 vs Australia due to a back injury that required surgery. Bumrah has not featured in any cricket since late September last year due to his back injury. He had tried to make a comeback a couple of times but couldn’t pull his fitness up.
Eventually, in March, he underwent surgery in New Zealand and in April he started his rehab at the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The BCCI are hoping Bumrah will be fit for the 2023 World Cup in October.
Bumrah had gone wicketless in the 2021 World Test Championship final against New Zealand.
Ishant Sharma
Ishant Sharma had done well in the 2021 WTC Final: registering figures of 25-9-48-3 in the first innings, helping India stay alive, and there was little he could do in the second innings while defending a small total. He was part of the side that took a 2-1 lead in the following series against England, but suffered a downfall after that.
Ishant featured in 8 Tests in 2021 with only 14 wickets to show and was dropped from the Test squad in early 2022. Siraj had already gone ahead in the pecking order and with India playing with only 2 seamers at home – to choose between Siraj, Shami, and Umesh – and picking Shardul Thakur as a seam-bowling all-rounder away from home, Ishant’s wasn’t going to find a place in the XI; his dipping form and age further hurt his cause.
