Keeping India’s pace battery fully charged will be crucial to the team’s ICC World Test Championship chances, skipper Virat Kohli said following their win over the West Indies in the first Test on Sunday.
Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets for seven runs, while fellow fast bowler Ishant Sharma claimed three as India recorded their biggest-ever away win by runs, thrashing the hosts by 318 runs in Antigua.
Kohli justified the decision to rest Bumrah for the three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 games before the Tests.
Photo: AP
“That’s why Bumrah didn’t play any white-ball cricket after the World Cup, because we wanted him fresh for the Tests,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “He’s going to be a key factor for us as long as the Test Championship continues. We know how good a bowler he is and the impact he can make in a spell.”
“That’s probably the most important thing for us right now, managing player workloads,” Kohli said.
The inaugural championship involves the nine top-ranked Test nations competing in a league between July and April 2021, with the top two sides progressing to the final to be held in England in June 2021.
In Sri Lanka, New Zealand squared their two-Test series 1-1 with a comprehensive win by an innings and 65 runs yesterday.
New Zealand wicketkeeper B.J. Watling (105 not out) and Tim Southee (24 not out) added 49 runs in five overs on the fifth morning of the rain-and-bad-light affected match to push their total to 431-6 when the declaration came.
The visitor’s five bowlers shared the wickets as Sri Lanka made just 122 trying to save the Test, with only Niroshan Dickwella (51) providing an innings of substance.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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