India was bowled out for 170 in their second innings, setting NZ 139 to win and lost by 8 wickets.
Sunil Gavaskar believes that batsmen needed to be patient to get runs in Tests and that’s something the Indian cricket team slightly lacked throughout the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021) Final against New Zealand.
Last week, Kane Williamson-led New Zealand team thrashed Virat Kohli-led India in the WTC 2021 Final to win the ICC Test Championship Mace at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
Analyzing India’s batting show in the WTC Final against New Zealand, Gavaskar said had India shown a bit of steadiness in their batting, the result could have been entirely different in Southampton.
Gavaskar said on Sports Tak: “In batting, the patience that is needed for Test cricket, for five days, we saw it slightly lacking. And because of that, there was a willingness to play shots and that’s what got our batsmen out. When the ball is not moving in the air or off the pitch, you can reach the pitch of the ball and play shots. But when there is movement, you need to bit a bit patient. And had we shown it, the result could have been something else.”
The legendary batsman admitted that the batting was very tough in the first four days, but there was a golden opportunity for India on the final day when the sun was out and there was no grass and Virat Kohli and co. could have walked away with a draw in the WTC 2021 Final.
Unfortunately, India lost their final eight wickets for 106 runs on day 6 with Rishabh Pant top-scoring with 41 in the second innings and was bowled out for 170 and eventually lost the opportunity to win the WTC mace.
He signed off by saying, “I'm talking about the batting on the final day. For the first four days, batting was very tough. You bring any batsman to play, and he would have had a tough time. But when on the final day, the sun was out, and even the grass did not exist. Yet everyone tried to play their shots and we lost eight wickets.”