India won’t be able to bowl New Zealand out in the second innings: Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian batter, reckoned that Virat Kohli and Co don’t have adequate time left to bowl New Zealand out in the World Test Championship final. The match at the Rose Bowl in Southampton has moved to the reserve day with India leading by 32 runs and eight wickets left.

After Tim Southee got rid of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli stayed unbeaten as the overnight batters. Gavaskar felt that for India to have any chance of winning, they need to get runs quickly and insert the Black Caps at the earliest.

“India will be looking to score freely and put some runs on the board and maybe try to bowl New Zealand out in the fourth innings. An exciting finish for the first-ever WTC final,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying in India Today.

Batting has become a lot easier: Sunil Gavaskar

After rain played spoilsport for a chunk of the match, the sun was out on the fifth day. Gavaskar said that with the conditions getting better for batting, India need to bowl exceptionally to run through the New Zealand batting lineup.

“They have earned the opportunity (an outside chance to go for a win) but now the pitch seems to be playing a lot better because of the weather that is different, there is a little bit of sun out now. It has dried up the surface.

“Even if there is a little bit of grass on the pitch, it won’t have that much carry that was there in the earlier days. So that means batting has become a lot easier,” he stated.

“India will probably not be able to bowl New Zealand out in the 2nd innings. They have to bowl exceptionally well to get New Zealand out,” Gavaskar added.

In the first innings, it took 99.2 overs for Team India to bowl the Kiwis out. Cameos from Kyle Jamieson and Southee meant that Kane Williamson and Co got past India’s first-innings score without much trouble.

The Kiwis’ bowlers will be looking for some early breakthroughs and put pressure on India’s middle-order in the first session of the Reserve Day.