Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 6 (ANI): The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly on Saturday hailed hosts’ ‘monumental effort’ of playing good cricket for so long while staying in the bio-secure environment.
India defeated England by an innings and 25 runs in the fourth and final Test to win the series 3-1 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday.
With this win, India set up the final of the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) against New Zealand.
Ganguly, the former Indian skipper, congratulated the Virat Kohli-led side for qualifying to the WTC finals and hailed the “outstanding” effort of playing good cricket for the last five months.
“Congratulations Team India for winning the series and getting to the finals of WTC ..it’s a monumental effort to be in the bubble for so long and still play such good cricket for the last 5 months .. outstanding,” Ganguly tweeted.
Meanwhile, India head coach Ravi Shastri said that living in a bubble isn’t an easy thing to do. The Indian players haven’t been on a break since the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Shastri pointed that it is “really tough” living in a bio-secure environment.
“Six months in the bubble, seeing the same faces. The bubble will burst (smiled Ravi). It’s tough for professional players when you are not doing well. it’s really tough being in the bubble,” Shastri said in the post-match presentation.
Shastri also pointed out the fact that the visitors failed to convert the chances hence lost the series even after winning the first Test.
“The scoreline of 3-1 doesn’t reflect how close the series was. It’s like our series in England we lost 1-4. England had their moments and if they grabbed those we could have had a different result,” Shastri said.
India finished as the number one team with 72.2 percentage points in the WTC points table, the factor that determined the final placings rather than total points won, following a change to the points system owing to the Covid-19 disruption. (ANI)