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SPORTS JUNE 23, 2023 | The Indian Eye 41

Championship Final has pushed the
left-hander well up the ICC Men’s
Test Batting Rankings. He won the
‘Player of the Match’ award in the
final.
Scoring 163 across the first two
days of the World Test Champion-
ship Final against India at The Oval,
Head jumped three places, join-
ing Marnus Labuschagne (1st) and
Steve Smith (2nd) in the top three
with a rating of 884. Usman Khawa-
ja (9th, 777 rating points) makes it
four Australians in the top 10.

Now, legendary cricketer Sachin
Tendulkar has questioned the
omission of the world’s top-
ranked Test bowler Ravichan-

dran Ashwin from Team India’s
playing XI against Australia in
the World Test Championship
(WTC) final 2023 at The Oval.

After dominating India over the
course of five days Australia secured
their maiden World Test Champi-
onship 2023 title on Sunday at the Australia Test captain Pat Cummins celebrates with his teammates after winning the ICC WTC Final against India (ANI)
Oval, London. India succumbed
to a score of 234 in 63.3 overs with qualifies for the final, there should Legendary Indian cricketer Singh also raised questions over
Mohammad Shami as the last player be certain clauses put to franchises,” Sunil Gavaskar also slammed the highly spin-friendly pitches in India,
standing with a score of 13 (8). he further added. Indian team, especially star batter and how it affects India’s prepara-
“I fail to understand the exclu- The Indian skipper had made Virat Kohli, for poor shot selection tion for big matches, especially in
sion of @ashwinravi99 in the play- the case that “ideal preparation,” and overall disappointing perfor- pace-friendly conditions.
ing XI, who is currently the num- which they had when they were vis- mance with the bat, which saw them Harbhajan said that by finishing
ber one Test bowler in the world,” iting England. crumble in the opening session of Test matches within just three days
Sachin wrote on Twitter. They had started preparing over the final day of the ICC World Test on spin-friendly Indian pitches, In-
“Like I had mentioned before three weeks before the Test series in Championship (WTC) final at The dia cannot prepare itself fully for big
the match, skilful spinners don’t al- 2021, and that had benefited them, Oval during a run-chase of 444 runs. clashes and they need to work hard
ways rely on turning tracks, they use leading to India taking a 2-1 lead India started the final day in a for all five days, make it their habit.
drift in the air and bounce off the until Covid-19 caused the delay of solid position at 164/3, with Virat “You cannot give yourself that
surface to disguise their variations. the final Test. Kohli (44*) and Ajinkya Rahane fake confidence after playing and
Not to forget, Australia had 5 left- “Yeah, ideally, we would want (20*) unbeaten. winning matches on bad pitches
handers out of their top 8 batters,” to have a good time in hand to pre- But early in the first session, Vi- where the ball starts spinning from
said Sachin. pare, give enough rest to the bowl- rat chased a ball that pitched outside ball one. You will have to develop a
India’s former head coach Ravi ers,” Rohit said at the post-match off stump and edged it straight into habit of working hard for five days.
Shastri responded to Indian captain press conference. the hands of Steve Smith at slips, Only then you will find yourself pre-
Rohit Sharma’s statement about “Sometimes, it can be tough be- who took a brilliant diving catch. pared better for these big match-
needing “20-25 days to prepare”, cause playing T20 cricket, you com- Virat did not only miss his fifty by a es. Fast bowlers do not get to bowl
and said that in that case, they would pletely bowl different lengths, dif- run, but it started India’s downward much on these pitches, spinners are
have to miss some Indian Premier ferent lines, and a lot of change-ups. spiral on the final day too. used right from the first over. There
League (IPL) matches. And then Test cricket, obvious- “It was a bad shot. It was an are a lot of things we should rectify,”
“Let’s be realistic here. You’re ly, requires a lot of discipline, hitting ordinary shot. You are asking me said Harbhajan on Star Sports after
not going to get those 20 days. And that area consistently and challeng- about it, I think you should ask the match.
if that’s the case then you’ve got ing the batsmen - but again, you Kohli. What was that shot? That In the recently concluded Bor-
to miss IPL,” Shastri said to Star know [Mohammed] Shami, [Mo- was a shot outside the off-stump. der-Gavaskar Trophy against Aus-
Sports as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. hammed] Siraj, Umesh [Yadav] they We talked so much about the fact tralia at home earlier this year,
“So, the choice is yours and it’s all are experienced, they obviously that to win a match, you need a long wickets were extremely spin friendly
up to the establishment as well. I’m know how to prepare themselves inning. You need a century. How are and three out of four Tests ended
sure the BCCI will review this in the and get ready for a game like this. you going to make a century if you in three days. Spinners dominated
future, if a World Test Champion- But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would are going to play a shot so far out- the series heavily, with Ravichan-
ship [final] is going to come after an prefer it if we have 20-25 days to side the off-stump,” Gavaskar said dran Ashwin (25 wickets), Ravindra
IPL every time in the month of June, prepare for a game like this,” Rohit on Star Sports. Jadeja (22) and Nathan Lyon (22)
then for that season, if your team had said. Legendary spinner Harbhajan being the top wicket-takers.

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