Picture Credit: PTI
After a day’s halt due to unfavourable weather at Southampton, the much-awaited World Test Championship final resumed on Day 2, but the ground fans and TV spectators watched the match in bits and pieces as the match was interrupted twice due to bad light. The team had gone with a 20-member squad to play the one-off Test against New Zealand in the WTC final followed by five-match Test series against England, which is scheduled to start from August.
However, the number was later reduced to 15, which saw Mayank Agrawal, KL Rahul, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel missing out from the final 15. Meanwhile, the players with no cricketing action in the coming days have been released from the bio-bubble. Mental fatigue is reportedly the reason to release the players from bio-bubble.
The released players along with 4 reserve players have reportedly headed to London. However, the whole unit will regroup prior to the first Test against England following a three-week break after the WTC final.
An Evenly balanced start of the WTC for both the teams
Day 2 of the WTC final saw both the Indian openers getting out after giving a solid start to the team. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were batting quite fluently at the start of the game, with the duo adding 62 runs before a Kyle Jamieson delivery saw Rohit Sharma getting caught out courtesy of a well-dived catch by Tim Southee. In a span of 1 run and 26 deliveries, Gill also lost his wicket to Neil Wagner.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli and deputy Ajinkya Rahane stood firm at the crease to stabilize India’s innings. The duo added an unbeaten 58-run for the fourth wicket partnership. While Virat Kohli (44*) inches closer to his half-century, Rahane’s comfortable 29* runs knock took India to 146/3 as bad light forced early stumps on Day 2.