Kohli expresses reservation on format

India captain Virat Kohli believes that the World Test Championship (WTC) final should ideally be contested over the course of a three or five-Test series.

Speaking after India lost to New Zealand in the one-off WTC final at Southampton on Wednesday, Kohli stated that the current format does not accurately reveal a true champion.

“I’m not in absolute agreement with deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game. It has to be a test of character over three Tests — which team has the ability to come back into the series, or totally blow away the other team.

Hard grind

“It can’t just be pressure applied over two days of good cricket. It has to be a hard grind. At the end of three matches, there’s effort, ups and downs, situations changing throughout the course of the series, a chance to rectify things you’ve done wrong in the first game… Then you can really see who’s the better side,” Kohli said at the post-match media interaction.

“If you saw the way this game went, why wouldn’t you want to see two more Tests of the teams battling it out to eventually win the WTC?

“Historically, all the great Test series’ are remembered for being three or five matches long. I think this definitely has to be brought in. I’m not saying this because we’re not on the winning side. For this (WTC final) to be absolutely memorable, I think it has to happen over three games at a minimum,” said the Indian skipper.

“We are not too bothered by this result because we understand what we’ve done over the last three-four years as a Test side. This (WTC final) is not a measure of who we are as a team, and the ability and potential we have had for so many years,” Kohli said.

On the team’s batting struggles in the summit clash, Kohli said, “We definitely need to work out better plans in terms of understanding how to score runs. We have to stay in sync with the momentum of the game. and not let the game drift away too much.”