India may have qualified for the final of the ICC World Test Championship but it’s going to be a challenge for them given the fact that it’s scheduled to get underway just a week after the IPL season will end. WTC final gets underway from June 7 in London while IPL 2023 final will be played on May 28.
“It is going to be a challenge. There’s going to be a lot of logistics involved given the IPL final is only a week before the WTC final. We’ll think about it,” India head coach Rahul Dravid said after the end of the 4th Test against Australia in Ahmedabad on Monday.
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“We just qualified at lunchtime today. I wasn’t counting my chickens before they hatched. We’ll celebrate this for starters,” he added.
New Zealand’s thrilling two-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Christchurch paved the way for India’s progress into the WTC final where the Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Australia.
The draw in Ahmedabad meant India won the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 – their fourth straight Test series win over Australia.
“Whenever we were under pressure with our backs to the wall we had to respond and we always found that. It’s one of the heartening things about coaching this team,” Dravid said.
“Rohit led the way in the first Test with a brilliant hundred and it was bookended by Virat Kohli’s brilliant 186. In the middle we had performances from (Ravichandran) Ashwin, (Ravindra) Jadeja, Axar (Patel), Shubman (Gill) there. I’ve probably missed out a few. I think our fight stood out,” he added.
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India were the dominant team in the first two Tests but Australia cut down the lead in Indore with an impressive win.
“It was a really hard-fought series, there were moments where we were put under extreme pressure by a really good cricket team and we responded. Whenever we needed someone to step up and put in a special performance, we found it,” Dravid said.
Dravid also praised the quality of Australian spinners led by the veteran Nathan Lyon who had two rookies in Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann for company.
“They (Australia spinners) have been exceptional, led by Nathan Lyon. He has been brilliant for Australia for many years but right through the series he was exceptional, the kind of pressure and control he gave Cummins and Smith was outstanding. Both young spinners gave him that kind of support,” he said.
“Lot of times we have seen overseas teams have only one good spinner and the others leak runs, but credit to the two young spinners, they maintained that pressure and picked wickets,” he added.
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