WTC Final: ICC should have developed a criteria to decide a winner, says Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar trusts that the inaugural World Test Championship Final will end in a draw after the downpour played spoilsport by and by toward the beginning of Day 4. He believes India and New Zealand will share the trophy.

The first two sessions of Day 4 haveeffectively been cleaned out because of rain. Things are probably not going to improve, with the climate gauge foreseeing unending precipitation for the duration of the day.

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Gavaskar, in Aaj Tak, said the WTC Final is probably going to end in a draw with only two days of cricketing activity left. He said:

“It looks like the World Test Championship Final will end in a draw and the trophy would be shared. It would be the first time that a trophy has been shared in the final. There are penalty shootouts in football or other criteria to decide a winner. In tennis, there are five sets and then a tiebreaker to get a winner. In Tests, we can only have a draw in such instances, and there is a high probability of a draw here as well.”

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Despite the fact that Day 4 hasn't been totally cleaned out, it is expected that it will end up in a washout. With a downpour proceeding to fall at Southampton, Sunil Gavaskar offered a hopeless climate update from Southampton.

“Everyone around here is saying that there is no chance of play today. It means only two days are left. To complete three innings in two days would be really difficult. Yes, if both teams bat really badly, the three innings could be completed.”

With three innings yet to be finished, a draw looks like the most probable outcome in Southampton. The rules mean the trophy will be shared by India and New Zealand in that occurrence, yetSunil Gavaskar feels the ICC ought to have finalized criteria to decide a sole victor before the tournament got in progress.

“There should have been some way to decide a winner. In the 2019 World Cup, we saw the team that hit the most boundaries lift the trophy. Due to the pandemic, the table was decided based on percentage points rather than outright points. The goalpost kept shifting throughout the World Test Championship, which wasn’t fair for any team. They should have considered all things and developed criteria to decide a winner” - he signed off