New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said his team is looking forward to the marquee final of the World Test Championship (WTC) against India, scheduled in Southampton from June 18-22.
Virat Kohli’s team won 12 of their 17 fixtures during the two-year-long league stage, including series wins away in West Indies and Australia and at home against South Africa, Bangladesh and England.
India only blip came when they travelled to New Zealand early last year as Williamson’s men defeated them 2-0. The Kiwis secured victories in 7 of their 11 matches before entering the final. They couldn’t play Bangladesh away due to pandemic hurdles, drew in Sri Lanka and lost badly in Australia but dominated Pakistan, West Indies and India at home.
“We saw the contests in the WTC has brought real excitement … the games were really tight such as in the India-Australia series and our series against Pakistan as well where you had to really fight hard to get the results, which is really great,”
Williamson said.
One of Williamson’s ace quick, Neil Wagner, said the Indian bowling attack is expected to pose a major challenge for all the Kiwi batsmen in English conditions.
“India has a lot of quality fast bowlers who have done well in different conditions, they can swing (the ball) under overcast conditions but when the sun comes out it (wicket) is flat and nothing happens,”
Wagner said.
Hanuma Vihari, India’s middle-order batsman, who is in England already after the completion of his short stint with Warwickshire in the County Championship, also spoke about the challenge of playing in English conditions that can vary from session to session.
“Conditions can change throughout and so I am not getting carried away too much, trying to control the controllable. I am excited but I would want to be in that moment and not get too carried away by the importance of the situation.”
he said.
New Zealand will take on England in a two-Test series, beginning June 2 at Lord’s, in the build-up to the WTC final. For India, the WTC final will kickstart their long sojourn in the UK, including also a five-Test series versus England.
