India Have A Good Chance To Win WTC Final, They Have All Bases Covered: Former India Batsman Sridharan Sriram

Former India batsman Sridharan Sriram opines that Team India stands a good chance to win the inaugural World Test Championship against New Zealand to be played from June 18 in Southampton.

Sridharan Sriram, who has also been a spin consultant and an assistant coach for the Australian team, has experienced the surface at The Rose Bowl first-hand; he reckons the pitch will assist the spinners, and hence R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja can exploit the conditions to their favor.

“India is a quality side. Having done well against England in the last Test series, they will carry that confidence into the WTC final. They have a good chance to win,” Sridharan Sriram told The New Indian Express.

“From experience, I know that the surface in Southampton will help spinners. Both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will get good purchase,” he added.

I don’t think that New Zealand have an upper hand because of their bowling: Sridharan Sriram

The New Zealand pace bowling quartet of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, and Kyle Jamieson was crucial in them qualifying for the final as they won all their games at home in the WTC cycle defeating India, West Indies, and Pakistan 2-0 each. They will once again pose a massive challenge to Virat Kohli and other batters.

However, Sridharan Sriram doesn’t believe that the Kiwis have any sort of major advantage over Team India because of their bowling. He says that the Indian batters have plenty of experience in overseas conditions; that they have recently won a Test series in Australia without their talismanic skipper.

“I don’t think so. I think India is a very well-balanced side, they’ve got all bases covered. And the quality of India’s bowling will test the New Zealand batsmen. The Indian batsmen have a lot of experience now of playing overseas, so I do not think that New Zealand have an upper hand because of their bowling,” explained the former India batsman.

“I don’t think they (India) are over-dependent on Kohli because they beat Australia in Australia without him. But obviously having Kohli is a big advantage given his calibre,” the 45-year old opined.

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