After playing a total of 6 bilateral Test series under 5 captains and 2 coaches, India has made it to the second straight final of the World Test Championship. India finished 2nd in the WTC 2021-23 points table with 127 points while Australia qualified after being the table topper with 152 points. Let's see how Team India made it to the finals of the WTC.
India played a total of 18 Test matches in 6 series, 3 at home and 3 overseas. Out of which the Indian team won 10 Tests and lost 5 matches. While 3 Tests were drawn.
A total of 5 captains led India in 18 matches of the World Test Championship from 2021 to 2023 —
1. Virat Kohli (7 matches)
2. Ajinkya Rahane (1 match)
3. KL Rahul (3 matches)
4. Jasprit Bumrah (1 match)
5. Rohit Sharma (6 matches)
The Indian team entered the field under the two head coaches of Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid in this period.
Put your seatbelt on and let's rewind the series-wise journey of Team India to the WTC Final:
1. India's tour of England (5 Tests) — 2-2
India had played their first series against England in the second cycle of the World Test Championship. The first match of the series started in August 2021 ended in a draw in Nottingham. Then India made a strong comeback and won the 2nd Test by a huge margin of 151 runs at the Lord's. England then won the 3rd test by an innings and 76 runs at Headingly and leveled the series by 1-1. Team India once again made the comeback and won the 4th Test by 157 runs to reclaim the lead over England at the Kennington Oval. Then on cusp of rewriting 90 years of IND-ENG Test History in the ultimatum test of the 5-match series, Covid-19 pushes the final match to 2022 where England drew the series 2-2 with a 7-wicket victory at Manchester.
2. New Zealand's tour of India (2 Tests) — 1-0
India and New Zealand played a 2-match Test series during Nov-Dec in 2021. Ajinkya Rahane led the home team in absence of Virat Kohli in the first Test at Kanpur which resulted in a draw as the visitors fought well to survive in the match. But the Kiwis lost the momentum and lost the 2nd match at Wankhede by a huge margin of 372 runs despite Azaz Patel's rare record of claiming all the 10 wickets in an innings.
3. India's tour of South Africa (3 Tests) — 1-2
Now India traveled to South Africa in the month of December. Despite winning the first test by 113 runs at Centurion, India lost their remaining two matches under the leadership of Virat Kohli for the last time.
The Men in Blue whitewashed the lankans by 2-0 in March 22, as they registered a thumping victory by an innings and 222 runs in the first test at Mohali and 238 runs in the second test in Bengaluru under their new Test leader Rohit Sharma.
5. India's tour of Bangladesh (2 Tests) — 2-0
KL Rahul led the team to Bangladesh in Dec, 22 in the absence of Rohit Sharma and sealed the series by 2-0 as India won the first test by 188 runs at Chattogram and the second test by 3 wickets at Dhaka.
6. Australia's tour of India (4 Tests) — 2-1
Now the journey comes to its final lap as India faced the Aussies in one of the most exciting series of the year in Feb, 2023.
The home side comfortably won the opening two matches of the series by an innings and 132 runs in the first test and 6 wickets in the second test at Nagpur and Delhi respectively.
Thereafter Australia came strong and won the third test by 9 wickets at Indore. Though they fought hard in the final and fourth test match but the match ended in a draw as India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1.
WTC 2021-23 IN NUMBERS FOR TEAM INDIA
BATTING
Most Runs - Cheteshwar Pujara (R - 887, M - 16, I - 30, H - 102*, A - 32.85, 100s - 1, 50s - 6)
Highest Score - Virat Kohli (186 vs Australia, March 9, Ahmedabad)
Highest Average - Axar Patel (A - 45.80, M - 9, I - 14, R - 458)
BOWLING
Most Wickets - Ravichandran Ashwin (W - 61, M - 13, I - 26, BBI - 6/91, BBM - 8/42)
Best Bowling in an innings - Ravindra Jadeja (7/42 vs Australia, February 17, Delhi)
Best Bowling figures in a match - Ravindra Jadeja (10/110 vs Australia, February 17, Delhi)
[Picture Courtesy - ICC, BCCI & several websites]
✍🏻 Subham Dey
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