Image Courtesy- Times of India & Cricket Addictor
Ahead of World Test Championship (WTC) Final, India and New Zealand are all set to meet for the final clash of the extravaganza that will be played at Southampton from June 18-22. In the history of cricket, this will be the first time in this format, the final match will be played between two top teams to find the champion of test cricket. Both the teams are looking good and are training hard to get the Test Championship mace.
India’s veteran fast bowler Ishant Sharma and young opener Shubman Gill are super confident before going into the final against the Blackcaps. Both of the players were seen in the Star Sports Cricket Connected show. During a chat in the show, Ishant Sharma pointed out the difference between playing in Indian conditions and English conditions. He quoted:
“You need to train differently and adapt to the change. In India, you get the reverse swing after some time, but in England, the length is fuller because of the swing. So, you have to adjust to the lengths,”
he added: “It is not easy to force that, and the weather here is cooler, so it takes time to acclimatize to the weather. And the quarantine makes it difficult because you cannot go to the ground, after IPL we were not allowed to go to the grounds and train. The way you train in the gym and the training on the ground is very different, so you have to adjust to that, and it takes time,”
Ishant Sharma also talked about the ban on the use of saliva on the cricket ball due to the COVID-19 restrictions, He said, “I think it is not that difficult. I think the ball will swing even without saliva and somebody needs to take responsibility to maintain the ball.” he also added “And if the ball is maintained well in these conditions, then it becomes easier for the bowlers to take wickets in these conditions,”
Shubman Gill on the same chat show said. “When I toured England with India A and the Under-19 team, everyone asked me to play a certain number of balls if I wanted to score runs. But I feel, your intent to score runs should never go on the back seat and you should look to survive.” He added:
“When you are looking to score runs, the bowlers get to the back foot and you can put some pressure on the bowler. If you are just looking to survive, you tend to get more good balls than you should be getting. I think, at times to survive in England you have to leave the loose balls. So, that was my learning from the India A and Under-19 tour”