A day after ICC revealed plans of starting off new white-ball tournaments, India captain Virat Kohli threw his weight firmly weight behind the ongoing ICC World Test Championship, rating it as the biggest among all the ICC events. Speaking ahead of the first Test against New Zealand, starting Friday at Wellington, Kohli said all other tournaments start below the Test championship.
“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. 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),” said Kohli ahead of the India vs New Zealand 1st Test.
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According to ICC’s proposed 2023-2031 Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle, a proposed T20 Champions Cup is earmarked for 2024 and 2028 and an ODI Champions Cup in 2025 and 2029, alongside the T20 World Cups in 2026 and 2030, and the ODI World Cups in 2027 and 2031.
{{/usCountry}}According to ICC’s proposed 2023-2031 Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle, a proposed T20 Champions Cup is earmarked for 2024 and 2028 and an ODI Champions Cup in 2025 and 2029, alongside the T20 World Cups in 2026 and 2030, and the ODI World Cups in 2027 and 2031.
{{/usCountry}}Giving reasons for his thought, Kohli explained that World Test Championship has made cricket’s longest format more exciting. The Indian captain also added that India might be sitting on top of the points table in World Test Championship but they need to perform away from home to maintain that.
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“It has made Test cricket more exciting and that’s something we have experienced as a side although we haven’t had too many games away from home. Couple of games in the West Indies and we haven’t had a tour of Australia as a part of Test Championship. This is our first away tour since the start of home season,” said Kohli.
The skipper expects that the two-Test series will be as intense as the recent series between England and South Africa.
“Games will be intense and teams will go for wins rather than settling for draws which is what we need to see in Test cricket. The South Africa versus England series was very exciting. England won the Cape Town Test in the final hour and you will see lot more results like that because there are lot more points in line,” he added.
(With PTI inputs)