Former India opener on Team’s Poor Performance vs. Australia: “Exact Same Thing Occurred During Previous WTC Final”

India’s hunt for its first ICC championship since 2013 is still going strong in the wake of their lopsided loss to Australia in the ICC World Test Championship final.

Wasim Jaffer, a former India opener, believes that the Indian squad did not have enough time to prepare for the Ultimate Test after the Indian Premier League (IPL) ended.

The WTC final began on June 7, whereas the almost two-month-long IPL season ended on May 29.

When speaking with Sportskeeda, Jaffer emphasized the distinction between a T20 competition and a red-ball match, claiming that one week of practice was insufficient for the WTC final.

Rahul Dravid, the head coach, and Indian captain Rohit Sharma bemoaned not having enough time to prepare.

Jaffer said that similar factors also led to India’s poor performance in the 2021 WTC final, which New Zealand won easily by 8 wickets.

Jaffer said that given that the Indian cricketers had recently finished an IPL season and that the workload of the franchise competition had a significant effect on the players, the scenario was much the same at that moment.

“The last WTC final versus New Zealand had the exact same issue, and that match ended in a loss. Simply put, I don’t believe they had enough time to prepare,” Jaffer added.

Due to their participation in the IPL, the WTC-bound players landed in England in distinct waves.

After the group-league games were over, the cricketers whose teams didn’t advance to the IPL Playoffs took an early flight to England. However, the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans players who were also a part of the WTC team could only depart after the championship match.

“The bowlers were on the shorter side in length. One of the possible factors is that all of the bowlers were straight out of the IPL. In the IPL, one just has to bowl four overs, however here, 17 and 18 overs must be given. Their body was not used to the disparity, according to Jaffer.

Jaffer believes that the hitters were also impacted by the change in formats. “Batters were not used to complete two sessions at once and leaving several balls on the field. It’s a major changeover that is challenging,” he remarked.