Once the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season is over, all eyes of the fans will be on the second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final between India and Australia, set to take place from June 7 to June 11 in England.
Team India is getting ready for a second consecutive WTC Final 2023, slated to be held in Oval from June 7. The Rohit Sharma-led side will lock horns with Australia for the coveted title.
Ahead of the WTC Final, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released a video of some players from the current Indian Test Side looking back on their journey to the WTC Final. The shared video was at the time when India reached the final of the WTC following New Zealand’s win over Sri Lanka in the first Test.
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From Nottingham to Ahmedabad 🏟️
A journey of grit, determination, pride and teamwork 👏🏻#TeamIndia 🇮🇳 members relive a remarkable journey of reaching the WTC Final for the second time 👌🏻👌🏻 – By @RajalArora
WATCH the full Video 🎥🔽 #WTC23 https://t.co/WVY41lVNNh pic.twitter.com/uOnBK74ADp
— BCCI (@BCCI) May 24, 2023
Ravichandran Ashwin spoke in detail about how the team had turned things around after the retirement of talismanic skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and how an inexperienced side started on a journey on their own.
“The turnaround definitely started in 2014. MS Dhoni had just retired and we had all played for a few Tests… and we had to start a journey of our own. Never easy without the seniors, but I can comfortably say that all the efforts we have put in have come really to fruition over the last two cycles of WTC.” Ashwin said in a video posted by BCCI.
“We are qualifying for the second time on the trot (for the WTC finals). It is no mean feat. We would have loved to win the series in India 3-1 or 3-0 or whatever it is but Australia played some good cricket. We weren’t able to do that. However, for the consistent cricket we have played, we’ve been rewarded with this final.” said Ashwin.
India finished second in the WTC points table, while Australia finished on top. India’s qualification was dependent on Sri Lanka losing at least one Test in their two-match Test series against New Zealand, and Kane Williamson helped India by defeating the Lankan Lions with his splendid hundred. This will also be India’s second appearance in a WTC final after they lost to New Zealand in 2021 in the inaugural edition of the championship.
Indian squad for the WTC final: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk).
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar and Suryakumar Yadav have been named as stand-by players.
