India captain Rohit Sharma didn’t hold back in the press conference after losing the WTC Final 2023 and fired shots at the media and the ICC, suggesting that the World Test Championship Final doesn’t necessarily have to be played in the month of June and in England. Indian Skipper also opined that a one-off Test isn’t a fair way to determine the winner of a two-year long cycle and that it could be a 3-Test series.
India lost their second consecutive World Test Championship Final, going down by a big margin of 209 runs to Australia at The Oval. Under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, India had lost the inaugural World Test Championship Final in 2021 to New Zealand in Southampton.
After electing to bowl first, India had a good start and had Australia in a bit of a pickle at 76/3. However, after that the conditions eased out for batting and Travis Head and Steve Smith hammered the Indian bowlers in a match-winning partnership of 285 runs with both batters notching up their respective hundreds.
Australia piled up 469 runs in their first innings to which India replied with 296 runs. Then, Australia declared in their second innings, giving India a target of 444 runs. India were bowled out for 234 runs in their second essay.
Rohit Sharma suggests hosting WTC Final out of England
Queried about his thoughts on back-to-back losses in the World Test Championship Finals, Indian Skipper said: “June isn’t the only month we should play the WTC Final. It can be played anywhere in the world and not just England”.
The final of the next WTC could be played at Lord’s.
The Indian captain also added that a “3 match series for the WTC Final will be ideal in the next cycle.”
In the post-match presentation, Rohit rued the bowling performance on Day 1 that allowed Head and Smith to run away with the match, their partnership helping Australia post a big total of 469 runs. He said that he and the bowlers were taken “off guard a little bit” by Head’s counter-attack.
“I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played really well along with Steven Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit,” Rohit Sharma said.
