India may have missed the opportunity to become the inaugural winner of the ICC World Test Championship, but that does not take anything away from the insurmountable amount of effort and hard work the team had put together to reach the final. A journey that began right after India's exit from the 2019 World Cup semi-final, culminated in them reaching the final of the first-ever WTC, with the team playing some incredible cricket in Australia and against England earlier this year.
Although India could not be crowned the World Champions of Test cricket, former captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was extremely pleased with what the team has achieved in the span of two years, and hailed the chief contributors of their run up to the WTC final.
"Everyone has contributed in this WTC journey. Ajinkya Rahane has been the highest scorer for India in the WTC. Don’t forget Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. For Ishant, a fast bowler, to have played 100 Tests, is not a mean achievement. After Kapil Dev, he is the only Indian pace bowler to have done so. There have been worthy contributions from Rohit Sharma, Rahane and skipper Virat Kohli. Ravichandran Ashwin has performed with the ball right through," Ganguly told The Week Magazine in an interview.
After the success of the inaugural WTC cycle, it is imminent that the second tournament is on the cards, and while Ganguly seemed excited by the prospect of it, he mentioned that there may be a few tweaks given how the Covid situation unfolds in cricket-playing nations.
"Both India and New Zealand have played well, and that is why they are in the final. As for the qualification criteria, it was based on the percentage of wins. Hopefully, in the next WTC cycle, there will be some tweaks. Last year, due to Covid-19, lots of matches and series were cancelled. Hopefully, the next cycle will take all this into account," Ganguly added.