Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman has reacted to New Zealand’s greatest triumph in their cricket history, saying the Kiwis were popular, worthy, and deserving winners of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) against India on June 23 in Southampton.
New Zealand beat Team India inside the final hour of a nail-biting reserve day at The Ageas Bowl, Southampton and Laxman said that such the kind of all-around performance in the WTC 2021 Final was expected from Kane Williamson and his team in the big clash.
Laxman wrote in his column for the Times of India, “New Zealand were popular, worthy and deserving winners of the inaugural World Test Championship, turning in the kind of all-round performance in the final that the world has come to expect of them.”
Read Also: WTC 2021 Final: Tim Southee says the WTC triumph will take a couple of weeks to sink in
He added, “While, as an Indian, I was rooting for Virat Kohli and his boys to come through, India's defeat was somewhat softened by the fact that the man who lifted the mace was Kane Williamson, someone I have come to know really well over the last few years at Sunrisers Hyderabad.”
New Zealand's first ICC title victory in the last 21 years came two years after they lost the World Cup 2019 title to England at Lord's – of which six WTC Final players – Williamson, Taylor, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Tom Latham, and Henry Nicholls were part of.
He further wrote, “Watching the grace and equanimity with which Kane reacted on Wednesday when Ross Taylor brought up the winning runs took me back to the scenes at the end of the World Cup final in 2019. New Zealand had lost the cup without losing the final, and when I saw Kane at the ground not long after the match, he just put his hands on my shoulders and said, "Oh, Lax!"
You could hear the pain in his voice, but that was about it. He wasn't overwhelmed by the outcome, just like he didn't go over the top after the WTC win.”
On the Indian cricket team, Laxman said: “India will be hurting, especially at their ordinary second-innings batting performance. They had handled more difficult conditions in the first innings with greater aplomb, but in the best batting conditions of the Test on Day Six, they didn't do enough to even secure a draw that would have given them a share of the spoils.
For a team that prides itself on taking adversity in its stride, the manner of the defeat rather than the result itself must be galling. New Zealand exposed a few technical inadequacies in the top order that England must have taken note of.”
He signed off by saying, “India has plenty of issues to address between now and the start of the five-Test series. They will contemplate some hard decisions, as Virat has already indicated, but knowing the team, I am sure they will use the Southampton Test as a spur to greater things.”
(With TOI Inputs)
