Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said Rohit Sharma & Co. will have a good opportunity to win the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final this year. Team India are looking set to make it to the final of the ongoing Test Championship, scheduled to be played in England later this year.
A couple of years ago, India had reached the final of the inaugural WTC too. Ravi Shastri was the head coach of the team at that time while Virat Kohli was the captain. Kohli could not lead the team to a win as New Zealand became the first-ever winners of ICC WTC.
India are now in a good position to make it to the final of the second ICC WTC too. They need to win one of the remaining two Tests against Australia in the ongoing series to seal their spot in the final. Australia are also in a good position to reach the final. As of now, Australia and India are occupying the top two spots in the ICC WTC Points Table.
Ravi Shastri on India’s chances in WTC final:
While only time will tell whether Team India make it to the WTC final or not, Ravi Shastri believes they have a good chance of winning it this year if they could make it to the title-decider.
The former India allrounder also said that a 4-0 whitewash of Australia in the ongoing series will give India the psychological edge, going into the big final.
“A 4-0 win here psychologically does send a strong signal to the opposition,” Ravi Shastri told the ICC.
“There will be an impact, but conditions are different as Australia will have their fast bowlers back as a lot of them are injured, But that psychological dent will make India believe that, even in those conditions, they’re good enough to upstage Australia,” he added.
Speaking further, Ravi Shastri criticised Australian batsmen’s approach in the ongoing series against India. The former India coach said that the lack of application from the Australia batsmen was unreal. Australia lost the first two Tests inside three days as they managed to cross the 200-run mark just once in 4 innings.
“I think application (has let them down) more than anything else. The lack of belief in their own defence,” Shastri said. “The lack of application and the lack of discipline was unreal and Australia paid for it big time.”
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