'For me, Pujara, Ajinkya and Ishant, this is like World Cup': R Ashwin on qualifying for WTC final
India reached the final of the World Test Championship with an emphatic 3-1 series win over England in the four-match series on Saturday. The Virat Kohli-led Indian team produced a remarkable comeback in the series, as the side had lost the first Test in Chennai before winning three successive matches to clinch the series.
Post the victory, the official website of BCCI posted a video where a number of Indian players talked about India's journey to the final of the World Test Championship.
Ravichandran Ashwin, India's leading spinner who was also the Man of the Series against England, compared the final of the WTC to that of the World Cup.
"For people like Puji (Cheteshwar Pujara), Me, Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane), Ishant (Sharma), the lot of us, who didn't play the 2019 World Cup, this is like literally the World Cup, to go there in the final. I'm so happy for all of them, and of course, for the entire team for getting there," Ashwin told BCCI.
"I'm sure we will get a positive result if we adapt quickly. It's just one match that we have as the final, it would be nicer if we had three but we have one, so we will live with that and we will try to give our best shot."
Umesh Yadav, who also represents India primarily in Test cricket, said that it "feels like a World Cup."
"When you know you're playing in a Test Championship and you're a part of the Test team for a long time, it feels like a World Cup (when you reach the final). The atmosphere around the team is very good, the boys are happy," said Yadav.
Indian captain Virat Kohli, meanwhile, said that the team deserved to be in the final on the account of its performances over the entirety of the campaign.
"We're quite relieved now. If you look at the last two and a half years at how we played, we deserved to be in the final. It's now about getting together as a group and focus on that one big game, which is quite exciting for all of us," said Kohli.
