AHMEDABAD, India, (Reuters) – India fell to the World Test Championship (WTC) final following their 3-1 series win against England yesterday but head coach Ravi Shastri remains bitter about how the qualifying rules were changed last year.
The top nine test teams were originally supposed to play six series each over two years at the WTC, with the top two reaching the final of the exhibition in London.
But after the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the game last year, the governing International Cricket Council decided to rank teams based on the percentage of points earned from finished games, instead of the total points, to determine finalists.
India, leading the table with 360 points, slipped behind Australia under the new rankings unveiled in November with skipper Virat Kohli questioning the rationale behind the rule change.
Kohli’s team entered the home series against England as part of a three-horse race, including Australia as well, to join New Zealand in the WTC final.
“Don’t move the goalpost,” Shastri told a video conference yesterday when asked if he saw any aspect of the WTC opening round as problematic.
“You have more points than any other team in the world, 360 at that time, and suddenly there’s a percentage system where you go from number one to number three in a week,” said Shastri.
Kohli’s men won away in Australia and at home against England to reach the WTC final and Shastri said it was no easy task.
“We’ve had to dig deep. We have had to go down every hole needed to find water and we found it.
“We entered the final of the World Test Championship, the largest trophy in the world, with 520 points.”
India’s home fixture against England will kick off Friday with the first of the five Twenty20 Internationals in Ahmedabad.