The ICC rolled out the World Test Championship in a bid to add context to every Test match played for a span of two years. There are points up for grabs and no Test is without a purpose. As such, even when Australia retained the Ashes, they were drawn level with England when the series ended as the scoreline read 2-2. Under Virat Kohli, India are sitting pretty on top with 160 points and have further chances to bolster their position.
However, on the eve of the second Test match in Pune, captain Kohli weighed in on the points system and suggested a major tweak to how the different teams are allotted points.
“If you’d have asked me to make the points table, I’d have asked for double the points for an away test win,” Kohli told reporters in Pune. The skipper tried to drive home the point that away victories were more hard to come by and hence, should be given more recognition.
India dominated South Africa in the first Test match at Visakhapatnam and now, the action shifts to Pune. However, as per the weather forecast, rain and thunderstorm is expected to play spoilsport and this could even have a bearing on the conditions and the combinations India play.
“To be a good number one team in the world, any conditions that come your way, you got to accept and say these are home conditions,” bowling coach Bharat Arun told reporters ahead of the Pune match.
“If you want to be the number team in the world, you got to look at the wickets and adapt your bowling instantaneously to be successful,” he added.
Because the fast bowlers played a crucial role in India’s win, the recovery of all bowlers will be the priority. “That’s part of workload management,” said Arun. “It takes a couple of days after a very hard Test for the bowlers to recover. We give our pacers necessary breaks after a hard Test. We don’t let them bowl at practice. We just let them bowl enough so that they are absolutely raring to go for the next game.”
WhatsApp us