Australia spinner Nathan Lyon has come up with a unique suggestion for the World Test Championship Final within 24 hours after the ICC confirmed the dates and venue for the summit clash. The top nine Test teams battle for two years in a single edition of WTC and a one-off final to decide the winner has been a talking point even before with Rohit Sharma feeling that it should be a three-match series.
The Indian skipper had expressed his views after losing the WTC final to Australia last year and Pat Cummins had then made an exactly contrasting statement. "I would like to play the 3-Test match series for the WTC 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," Rohit had said after the match.
Lyon has now echoed Rohit's sentiments and at the same time, has come up with an idea of playing the three-match WTC finals series in three different countries. According to him, three matches could be played in England, Australia and India, the countries that offer different conditions.
"One thing I would like to see, I'd like to see the World Test Championship Final potentially in a three-match series. That may become a little bit better because you potentially can lose using a Test match in one session where [in a three-match series] it may allow teams to bounce back all your show their dominance and win 3-0. We're pretty time-poor anyway and that's going to be a challenge but that's one thing I would change.
"You potentially could go one in England, one in India, one in Australia, so you have all different conditions, but obviously, the timing of that changes everything. I don't think we're going to get on the MCG in the middle of August, just putting it out there," Lyon said while speaking to the ICC.
The 36-year-old also called the WTC as the pinnacle of Test cricket highlighting its significance in keeping the format alive. Lyon also pointed out that the emergence of WTC has eliminated the dead rubbers from the bilateral series. "I'll just say it's [World Test Championship] the pinnacle for Test cricket. People say it's sometimes a dead rubber when you turn 2-0 up in a three-match series or whatever it may be.
"But I feel like there's no more dead rubbers. I've never considered them dead rubbers, but there's always points on offer now. You look at us last year losing against West Indies at the Gabba hurt us a fair bit," the Aussie spinner added.
