Virat Kohli and Eoin Morgan. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Australia won the World Test Championship final 2023 by defeating India by 209 runs on Sunday, June 11. The final resulted in the culmination of the second cycle of WTC with the third cycle beginning in a few days. The ICC (International Cricket Council) began the WTC in 2019 to keep the longest and the oldest format of the game alive with the fears of it becoming extinct all around the cricketing world.
However, the format is once again going through a challenging time according to former England skipper and world champion, Eoin Morgan. The 2019 World Cup winner said that the loss of Virat Kohli as a Test Captain is a huge loss to the game as he was really passionate about the format.
“Test cricket for me is still unbelievable. But it is a really challenging time for it. It has lost Virat Kohli as a Test captain and he always spoke vividly about how much he loved it and was passionate about it,” Morgan was quoted as saying by the Mirror.
Notably, Kohli was always vocal about the importance of Test Cricket and was one of the staunchest supporters of the game. The former India captain is the fourth most successful skipper in the history of the game having 40 wins to his name from 58 matches with a win percentage of 58.82. However, he stepped down from the captaincy in January 2023 following India’s 1-2 series loss against South Africa. Furthermore, the 36-year-old credited England captain Ben Stokes for re-igniting people’s interest in the format.
“Stokes is the same, and he has taken on a huge responsibility to the game to make it as attractive as possible,” Morgan concluded.
Ben Stokes’ England have taken Test Cricket by storm
Stokes has been having a phenomenal run as England’s skipper where he has won 11 matches out of 13 since last year. Stokes along with head coach Brendon McCullum have revolutionized Test cricket with their ‘Bazball’ style, where they’re scoring runs at a run rate of 4.85. England’s new approach has made ‘draw’ irrelevant with the team going for a win irrespective of the situation of the game.
Test cricket needs more characters like Stokes and Kohli to keep the format relevant and not just a contest between top-four ranked teams.
Meanwhile, the format is going to get blessed with the older rivals of the game England and Australia taking on each other in the Ashes 2023 from June 16.