Kohli sings praises of ICC World Test Championship

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has come out as a big fan of the ICC World Test Championship. Ahead of India’s first Test against West Indies at Antigua, Kohli stated that the Championship will add more competitiveness to the longest format. The Test series in the Caribbean will mark the commencement of the World Test Championship for both the sides.

Also read: Five epic Test encounters from India’s tours of West Indies

Speaking to the media ahead of the Test, Kohli was all praises for the tournament:

“The games are going to be much more competitive and it brings a lot of purpose to the Test matches you play. It’s the right move and at the absolute right time.”

Kohli further added that Test cricket has only become more competitive over the last few years. The Indian skipper believed that the motivation for winning points would curtail the number of boring draws. The talismanic batsman was also of the belief that assertions about Test cricket dying a slow death were way off the mark.

“People have been talking about Test cricket not being relevant, or dying. For me, the competition has gone up two-fold in the last couple of years. It’s up to the players to take the challenge and go for victories. That’s going to be the essence of this Test championship as well. There will hardly be any boring draws, there will be exciting draws because everyone will want those extra points.”

Finally, Kohli admitted that the Indian batting unit will have to step up their performances in the future. The Indian batsmen have often failed to perform as a unit during away series’. This resulted in heartbreaking losses against South Africa and England. Though there were signs that they were finally starting to gel in the historic series win against Australia.

“Well, if I have to be brutally honest, I don’t think us batsmen have lived up to the standard. We have travelled a lot over the past year and a half and it’s been challenging. We lost in England but won in Australia because the batsmen pulled up. As much as individuals standout, I think it’s about batting well as a team and every team wants to put up a strong total on the board for the bowlers to come in and capitalise.”

India’s two-match Test series against West Indies will begin on August 22nd in Antigua. The second Test will be held between August 30 to September 3 in Jamaica.