After the completion of the white-ball series, India and New Zealand are ready to battle in the two-match Test series starting this Friday at Basin Reserve in Wellington.
India has won every single match of the World Test Championship (WTC) in the past six months. That said, the first away tour for India this year will be challenging, considering that they haven’t yet experienced a WTC game in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia).
ViratKohli said that India can compete against anyone irrespective of the conditions.
“We have prepared in a manner where our fitness levels are such, and concentration levels are such that we can compete against anyone anywhere in the world, and that’s the kind of confidence we are going to carry in this series as well,”ViratKohli said at the pre-match press conference.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently released the 2023-2031 Future Tours Programmer (FTP) cycle and it clearly indicates that they are concentrating more towards limited-overs cricket. Despite that, Kohli rated the WTC above any other ICC event.
“I think it (WTC) has made Test cricket more interesting, that’s something that we have experienced as a side although we haven’t had Test series in Australia or England with WTC on the line. This (New Zealand) is our first away tour since the home season. So, I’m sure the game is going to be pretty intense, and teams will go for results rather than settling for draws, which is what you need to see in Test cricket,”Kohli added.
“I think World Test Championship as an ICC tournament should be right up there. All the other tournaments for me they start under that. This is probably the biggest of them all, as every team wants to make it to the final at the Lord’s. We are no different,”Kohli explained.
The 31-year-old who captains the India national team, showed trust in his team and claimed that they could qualify for the WTC Finals scheduled to be played at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
“We are in that zone. We want to make sure that we qualify as soon as we can and be in that frame of mind to hopefully win that (championship),”Kohli concluded.
