After rain played spoilsport on Day 1, the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand got underway at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Saturday (June 19).
For the marquee game, Team India opted to go with two specialist spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja while the Kiwis preferred a four-pronged pace attack featuring Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson.
This decision of New Zealand team management left the legendary Australia spinner Shane Warne baffled as he believes the Southampton pitch would assist spinners as the match progresses.
Taking to Twitter, Warne wrote: “Very disappointed in Nz not playing a spinner in the #ICCWorldTestChampionship as this wicket is going to spin big with huge foot marks developing already. Remember if it seems it will spin. India make anything more than 275/300 ! The match is over unless weather comes in !”
Coming to the match, India got off to a decent start after being asked to bat first. The duo of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill added 62 runs for the opening wicket.
However, the BlackCaps pacers pulled things back, dismissing Rohit (34), Gill (28) and Pujara (8) to reduced India to 88/3.
Afterwards, the pair of captain Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane took matters into their hands and forged an unbroken 46-run stand to take India to 134/3 in 58.4 overs before bad light stopped play.
