Kane Williamson-led New Zealand side defeated India in the inaugural World Test Championship final to take the mace home.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli congratulated New Zealand for being the worthy winner of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final but has suggested a tweak in its format saying that the winner of the championship should be decided with at least a three-match series rather than a one-off game between the two finalists.
Speaking at the press conference after his side's loss, Virat Kohli said, "I am not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game. If it is a Test series, it has to be a test of character over three Tests - which team has the ability to come back in the series, or totally blow away the other team. It can't just be pressure applied over two days of good cricket and then suddenly you are not a good Test side anymore. I don't believe in it."
Not just Kohli, Team India head coach, Ravi Shastri, in a press conference before leaving for the UK also suggested a similar three-match series finale for the future editions of the WTC which is contested in a two-year cycle and the next cycle is set to begin in August starting with India-England five-match series in Nottingham.
Adding his points in the argument, Kohli said that the three-match series would give a better idea as to who is the better side and said that one match won't determine their quality as a Test side.
"It has to be a hard grind and something that definitely needs to be worked around in the future," he said. "At the end of three matches, where there's effort, there's ups and downs, there's situations changing during the course of the series, a chance to rectify the things you have done in the first game, and then really see who is the better side over the course of a three-match series or something, will be a good measure of how things really are.
"So we are not too bothered by this result because we understand as a Test side what we have done over the last 3-4 years, not just over the last 18 months. So this is not a measure of who we are as a team [with] the ability and the potential we have had for so many years now," Kohli added.
While ICC's acting CEO Geoff Allardice has already expressed his reservations against a three-match series finale for the next cycle of WTC attributing it to the lack of availability of a one-month window because of Future Tor Programs and scheduling, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has something different to say on the issue as he suggested that one-off knockout match has its own USP.
Williamson was asked the same question with respect to Kohli's comments to which he replied saying, "I suppose the exciting part to finals is that anything can happen. We know how fickle cricket is and we've seen it in other competitions, in other World Cups and in all other bits and pieces.
"The one-off factor does bring a unique dynamic, which does make it exciting and all these sorts of things, and on any given day anything can happen. We've been on all different sides of that statement," he added.
After the heartbreaks of finishing second in the two Cricket World Cup finals in 2015 and 2019, the Blackcaps side finally broke the jinx of stuttering at the last hurdle and defeated the Indian side comfortably by eight wickets on Wednesday.
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