Former India cricketer and Australia’s assistant coach Sridharan Sriram reacted to the team's ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021) title loss to New Zealand last week, saying it was a very close match and the COVID-19 situation for the last 12 months had an impact on Indian team.
The former spinner believes that New Zealand was already well acclimatized to English conditions after playing two Tests and winning the series against England before the WTC 2021 Final.
Sriram told CricketNext: “It was a close Test match. I think New Zealand adapted to the conditions better. Having said that, New Zealand played two Tests in England prior to the WTC final. They were already well acclimatized. Not many may have noticed the journey that the Indian team has gone through in the last year or so.”
On the other hand, the Indian cricket team lacked the match practice before the big clash playing only a warm-up intrasquad game.
But Sriram feels it is not an excuse for India, saying the national team has gone through a very tough time in the last 12 months due to the Coronavirus outbreak and that somewhere it played a role in the team’s loss to New Zealand in the WTC 2021 Final.
He further explained, “From IPL 2020 in Dubai, they went straight to Australia to be in a bubble for three to four months; returned home for 5 days and went to the home series against England to be in a bubble for two months, then go straight into IPL 2021 bubble, and now after a 14-day quarantine in Mumbai, go to England for the WTC final and then the five-Test series in about six weeks.
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What the Indian team has gone through in the last 12 months is very tough. Even the Australian players, the way they went back from IPL, having to quarantine in the Maldives and go to Australia and not to see the sunlight for the first 14 days is pretty tough.”
Sriram signed off by saying, “On the other hand, New Zealand was more fortunate because they did not have many COVID-19 cases in their country. They have been free, playing outdoors, practicing, playing their domestic tournament, went to England, and played two Test matches before the WTC final. Their preparation leading into the Test final was a lot more ideal. Having said that, that is not an excuse for India.”
(CricketNext inputs)
