Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq on Wednesday (June 30) expressed his surprise at the pitch prepared for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) finale between India and New Zealand at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton, England.
While consistent rain washed out two entire two days – Day 1 and Day 4 of the WTC 2021 Final, batting was never easy, given the prevailing conditions and tailor-made wicket for the bowlers in Southampton, as the teams couldn’t score more than 249 runs in an innings.
India was bowled out for 217 and 170, while New Zealand managed 249 in the first innings and then easily chased down 139 runs to beat India by 8 wickets to win the inaugural WTC title and take home ICC Test Championship mace on June 23.
Slamming the Southampton pitch used for the WTC Final, Inzamam said the batsmen were invisible in the WTC 2021 Final while questioning how can someone prepare such a pitch for the big game.
Inzamam said on his YouTube channel: “This Test match was six days long, and out of that almost four days saw consistent rain and still it got over within 2.5 days. No one mentioned this that who gave the idea that such a pitch should be used for the World Test Championship final, where only the bowlers were visible but the batting side went invisible? The first thing is I don't understand is that for such a big game, how can you prepare such a pitch.”
Former Pakistan batsman also suggested that the WTC Final should be a series of two Test matches and both finalists should host one match each in the future to get the fairer result.
He signed off by saying, “My advice is that you make it two Tests, devise a points system, play one game in New Zealand – or whoever is the finalist – and the other in India. The result would have come out fairer in that case.
If it were like the World Cup, where every match is played in the same country including the final, then it was different. So, it is just my opinion that in the future WTCs, the finals should be on a home and away basis, hosted by both the finalists."
