
The wait for an ICC trophy continues as yet another Indian team failed to cross the line. This time, it was against Australia in the second World Test Championship (WTC) Final at the Oval in London, where Rohit Sharma-led Indian team came second, losing by a huge margin of 209 runs.
After another painful defeat in an ICC Final, Rohit, who was part of the 2013 Champions Trophy campaign in England – the last when India won an all-team tournament, said while he laments his side's performance across the past five days, he still feels proud of the team for making it to their second successive final, which in itself is no small achievement.
Speaking to the post-match presenter after the match that ended inside the first session on day five, Rohit backed his call to put Australia into bat first in those conditions but feels the bowling let the side down considering the overall picture. The Indian captain didn’t shy from giving credit where its due as he praised the pair of Steve Smith and Travis Head, who scored respective hundreds in the first innings.
“I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session, and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played really well along with Steven Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit,” Rohit said.
While the Indian team didn’t bring their A-game this time against the mighty Aussies, Rohit feels what this squad achieved over the past two years is incredible in many ways, adding he is proud of this team irrespective of the result.
“We've worked hard for all those four years. Playing two finals is honestly a good achievement for us. But we'd like to go a mile ahead as well. You can't take the credit away from what we've done in those last two years to come here. Great effort from the entire unit,” the Indian Test captain added.
It’s been a decade since an Indian team won an ICC trophy, having lost on several occasions across formats in the past ten years.
Meanwhile, in this one-off final, Australia had the upper hand after scoring 469 in the first innings and dismissing India on 296 in theirs. A strong batting show in the second inning saw them giving India a huge total of 444 to win the match.
Following a decent start in the fourth innings, India failed to maximize the chances as they gave away wickets, resulting in losing their second straight WTC Final.
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