Ahmedabad: Moments before play began in the post-Lunch session, the Indian players were congratulating each other. The day’s play was far from over but India were assured of a World Test Championship final berth after New Zealand’s thrilling win over Sri Lanka. The result meant India had pencilled in a Test match on 7 June against Australia at The Oval. It was a matter of formalities and more time under the sun in Ahmedabad for Team India now as the fourth Test was heading towards a taxing draw and all eyes were on the clock.
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“Look, I think it’s quite critical for us, we’re going to keep in constant touch with all players who are going to play that final and monitor their workload and see what’s happening with them,” Rohit Sharma told reporters at the end of the series.
From Rohit’s words, one got the sense that preparations and plans are already underway for the title clash as the Indian captain talked about sending Duke balls to all the fast bowlers in the mix.
“We are sending some Duke balls to all fast bowlers and if they get some time to bowl with that but again it all depend individuals, guys who will be part of Final are not the guys who have not played in (the) UK and maybe one or two guys here and there and rest all of us have played in that part of the world. I don’t think it will be (a) huge problem. But yeah, look I believe in preparation and preparations will be key for us come the Final,” said Rohit.
Not much time between IPL final and WTC final
The window between the IPL final and WTC final is just a week and it will allow limited time for players to switch from T20 to Test mode. Even Rahul Dravid, during an interview with the host broadcaster, agreed that the window is less and it will be a challenge before the WTC final.
Rohit is already exploring the possibility of sending players, who will not feature in the IPL knockouts and will be part of Test setup, to England.
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