3 Reasons Why India Lost The ICC World Test Championship Final

New Zealand lifted its first ICC trophy in about 20 years’ time against India in the World Test Championship final and it was a massive achievement for the Kiwis. Having made two finals continuously in the ICC over WorldCup of 2015 and 2019, the New Zealand team thoroughly deserved the win in World Test Championship.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is still searching for his maiden ICC trophy title as a captain after coming so far in the 2017 Champions Trophy finals, and in the 2019 Worldcup semi-finals. Clearly. there is a jink going around for the Indian skipper when winning those major trophies and here are 3 reasons why India lost the ICC World Test Championship final.

3 Reasons Why India Lost The ICC World Test Championship Finals:

Poor Batting Display:

India wasn’t good enough with the bat honestly and despite starting off really well in the first innings, India lost a cluster of wickets quickly and it did not help their scoring rate as well. The senior batsmen including the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, and Virat Kohli should have done better and battled out the team out of crunch situations.

The Indian batsmen never looked comfortable on the pitch and their weakness against the moving ball in English conditions were exposed to the maximum. They lacked the intent that New Zealand batsmen showed and the lower order still remains to be contributing very little in the batting. If India could have got to a lead of more than 200 runs, then the time would have made it harder for New Zealand batsmen to chase down the score.

Losing the Toss:

Toss was a crucial factor in the World Test Championship final and India did not have the luck of winning the toss in the conditions where batting was really tough. New Zealand put India in to bat in overcast conditions and it had a big impact in the game as India was never looking like they could take 20 wickets in the remaining amount of time.

With the toss favouring the Kiwis, going into the reserve day, there was already a clear-cut possibility of either a New Zealand win or a draw. The match could have been way different if India won the toss and it is certainly one of the reasons behind India’s loss in the World Test Championship finals.

Poor Team Selection:

India announced their playing XI one day prior to the start of the ICC World Test Championship final and Virat Kohli backed the XI for any conditions despite the cloud cover. With the conditions suiting for more fast bowlers, it would have been ideal for Umesh Yadav or Mohammed Siraj to make the playing XI despite it weakening the batting order.

Jadeja was preferred as the all-rounder who can bowl some left-arm spin and his batting form has been great too for which he got the nod ahead of Hanuma Vihari. Vihari had a better technique that could have been handy in these situations and also, he could bowl those part-time spin. Two spinners in playing conditions like these might not be ideal for sure and India might have made a mistake with their team selection.