After their ICC World Test Championship title win against India in the final by 209 runs at The Oval, Australia made history by becoming the first-ever team to clinch all major ICC trophies
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Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin retained his top spot as a Test bowler in the ICC Test Rankings for bowlers in men’s cricket, despite missing out on the ICC World Test Championship against Australia at The Oval, informed ICC on Wednesday.
Ashwin finished as India’s leading wicket-taker and overall, third-highest wicket-taker behind South Africa’s Kagiso Rabara (67 wickets) and Australian spinner Nathan Lyon (88 wickets) in WTC 2021-23 cycle. He took 61 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 19.67 and an economy rate of 2.48. His best bowling figures are 6/91. Rohit Sharma (729 points) and Virat Kohli (700 points) sit in 12th and 13th respectively after the match among the batters. Rohit scored 15 and 43 in the ‘Ultimate Test’ at The Oval. Virat also scored 14 and 49 in the title clash against the Aussies.
India lost the ICC World Test Championship title for the second time after reaching the finals. Australia defeated India by 209 runs at The Oval and made history by becoming the first-ever team to clinch all major ICC trophies.
After their ICC World Test Championship title win against India in the final by 209 runs at The Oval, Australia made history by becoming the first-ever team to clinch all major ICC trophies. After dominating India over the course of five days Australia secured their maiden World Test Championship 2023 title on Sunday at the Oval, London.
In WTC 2021-23 cycle, Rohit scored 758 runs in 11 matches at an average of 42.11. He scored two centuries and two fifties in 19 innings, with the best score of 127. The skipper missed out on some matches due to injury. On the other hand, Virat posted decent numbers but could not live up to his ‘King Kohli’ tag in this cycle. In 17 matches, he scored 932 runs at an average of 32.13. In 30 innings, he scored only one century and three fifties, with the best score of 186.
Travis Head’s stunning first innings century in the World Test Championship Final has pushed the left-hander well up the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings. He won the ‘Player of the Match’ award in the final.
Scoring 163 across the first two days of the World Test Championship Final against India at The Oval, Head jumped three places, joining Marnus Labuschagne (1st) and Steve Smith (2nd) in the top three with a rating of 884. Usman Khawaja (9th, 777 rating points) makes it four Australians in the top 10.
Now, legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has questioned the omission of the world’s top-ranked Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin from Team India’s playing XI against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final 2023 at The Oval.
After dominating India over the course of five days Australia secured their maiden World Test Championship 2023 title on Sunday at the Oval, London. India succumbed to a score of 234 in 63.3 overs with Mohammad Shami as the last player standing with a score of 13 (8).
“I fail to understand the exclusion of @ashwinravi99 in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world,” Sachin wrote on Twitter.
“Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don’t always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters,” said Sachin.
India’s former head coach Ravi Shastri responded to Indian captain Rohit Sharma’s statement about needing “20-25 days to prepare”, and said that in that case, they would have to miss some Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.
“Let’s be realistic here. You’re not going to get those 20 days. And if that’s the case then you’ve got to miss IPL,” Shastri said to Star Sports as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“So, the choice is yours and it’s up to the establishment as well. I’m sure the BCCI will review this in the future, if a World Test Championship [final] is going to come after an IPL every time in the month of June, then for that season, if your team qualifies for the final, there should be certain clauses put to franchises,” he further added.
The Indian skipper had made the case that “ideal preparation,” which they had when they were visiting England. They had started preparing over three weeks before the Test series in 2021, and that had benefited them, leading to India taking a 2-1 lead until Covid-19 caused the delay of the final Test.
“Yeah, ideally, we would want to have a good time in hand to prepare, give enough rest to the bowlers,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.
“Sometimes, it can be tough because playing T20 cricket, you completely bowl different lengths, different lines, and a lot of change-ups.
And then Test cricket, obviously, requires a lot of discipline, hitting that area consistently and challenging the batsmen – but again, you know [Mohammed] Shami, [Mohammed] Siraj, Umesh [Yadav] they all are experienced, they obviously know how to prepare themselves and get ready for a game like this. But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would prefer it if we have 20-25 days to prepare for a game like this,” Rohit had said.
Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar also slammed the Indian team, especially star batter Virat Kohli, for poor shot selection and overall disappointing performance with the bat, which saw them crumble in the opening session of the final day of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval during a run-chase of 444 runs.
India started the final day in a solid position at 164/3, with Virat Kohli (44*) and Ajinkya Rahane (20*) unbeaten. But early in the first session, Virat chased a ball that pitched outside off stump and edged it straight into the hands of Steve Smith at slips, who took a brilliant diving catch. Virat did not only miss his fifty by a run, but it started India’s downward spiral on the final day too.
“It was a bad shot. It was an ordinary shot. You are asking me about it, I think you should ask Kohli. What was that shot? That was a shot outside the off-stump. We talked so much about the fact that to win a match, you need a long inning. You need a century. How are you going to make a century if you are going to play a shot so far outside the off-stump,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh also raised questions over highly spin-friendly pitches in India, and how it affects India’s preparation for big matches, especially in pace-friendly conditions.
Harbhajan said that by finishing Test matches within just three days on spin-friendly Indian pitches, India cannot prepare itself fully for big clashes and they need to work hard for all five days, make it their habit.
“You cannot give yourself that fake confidence after playing and winning matches on bad pitches where the ball starts spinning from ball one. You will have to develop a habit of working hard for five days. Only then you will find yourself prepared better for these big matches. Fast bowlers do not get to bowl much on these pitches, spinners are used right from the first over. There are a lot of things we should rectify,” said Harbhajan on Star Sports after the match.
In the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at home earlier this year, wickets were extremely spin friendly and three out of four Tests ended in three days. Spinners dominated the series heavily, with Ravichandran Ashwin (25 wickets), Ravindra Jadeja (22) and Nathan Lyon (22) being the top wicket-takers.
