IND vs AUS: India's captain Rohit Sharma has called for a big change in the calendar of the World Test Championship after his team went down to Australia in the final of WTC 2023. India suffered a 209-run heartbreaking loss as the Aussies wrapped the Men in Blue for 234 runs in the chase of 444 at The Oval. Meanwhile, after the loss, Sharma spoke to the media, pointing to a big change to be made in WTC.
Sharma said that there should be a three-match series for WTC Finals rather than a one-off Test. "I would like to play a 3-Test match series for the World Test Championship Final. We worked hard and we fought but we played just 1 game. I think a 3-match series would be ideal in the next WTC cycle," Sharma said in a post-match press conference.
Notably, earlier Virat Kohli had advocated for a similar change. After India's loss in WTC Final 2021, Kohli had asked for a best of three WTC Finals. However, he stated that the 2021 WTC result was not part of the opinion.
Meanwhile, India have reached the finals of the Test Championships on both occasions but have fallen short on the final hurdle both times. Earlier, it was New Zealand, who defeated the Men in Blue by 8 wickets and now the Aussies have kept India at bay with a thumping 209-run victory.
Sharma also opened up on the reasons for India's loss to Australia in the summit clash. "I think we began well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We were good with the ball in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. We need 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 said after the loss.
Sharma heaped praise on Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur's batting effort in the first innings and also stated that the team was not good with the bat in the second innings.
"I think it was a great fightback from Rahane and Shardul after we were 5 down for 150. They stood up and put up a good partnership there and kept us in the hunt. We bowled pretty well in the second innings. But then again we didn't apply ourselves with the bat. It was a good surface to bat on. All five days the pitch behaved pretty well and we didn't capitalise," Sharma said.
