ENG W vs IND W | One-off Test, Day-3: Shafali Verma leads India’s fightback following-on on a rain-marred day

WTC Final | IND vs NZ: Team India flock to game of darts as rain washed first day's play

After all the build-up to the World Test Championship Final between India and New Zealand in Southampton, England, fans were left disappointed as even toss could not take place due to the rain that poured on incessantly. However, the Indian team was not short of entertainment on an otherwise lull day as the players passed the time playing darts in the dressing room. The Board of Control for Cricket in India put out a video on its official Twitter handle of Ravichandran Ashwin and some of the support staff members and assistant coaches engaging in a game of dart. There is a prediction of rainfall even for the second day of the match, but it would not be as continuous and incessant as today, thereby giving a probability of some game time. A reserve day has already announced by the ICC, so even if after rain washing away the first day, there is still some chance of five days of play in the ultimate Test match that the game has seen in terms of stakes.

ENG W vs IND W | Test: Shafali Verma becomes first Indian woman to hit two fifty-plus scores on Test debut

Shafali Verma’s dream debut continued as she etched her name once again in record books, this time, by not breaking any record, but by creating something of her own. With a fifty in the second innings of the one-off Test against England in Bristol, she became the only Indian and fourth woman in world cricket to hit two fifty-plus scores in her debut test. Still unbeaten on 55, she would now be eying the record for most runs in debut Test by a woman, which is currently held by Lesley Cooke of England with 189 runs in her debut Test, which she played in 1986 against India Women in Weatherby. With this 55 added to her 96 of the first innings, Verma has so far aggregated 151 runs, which is the second most on debut for any woman cricketer. Following on in the Test after getting bundled out for 233 in the first innings, India were 83-1 when an early Tea had to be taken due to rain. Along with Verma Deepti Sharma, who remained unbeaten in the first innings was at the crease, playing on 18. Earlier, scoring 96 in the first innings, Verma broke Chandrakanta Kaul's record for most runs in debut Test innings for India Women. She also recorded the highest opening partnership for India Women in Tests along with Smriti Mandhana when the duo added 167 for the first wicket in the first innings of the ongoing Test.

Ashwin, Pant, Rohit Sharma, Bumrah weigh in on pressure of expectations Indian team deal with

Giving insights of the amount of pressure the star-studded Indian side face over the time from fans, Indian star players have opened up on what it means to be a Test cricketer for India and how do they deal with the enormous pressure of expectations. Off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that Indian Test cricketers are special for having the skills in them to soak up the pressure as every time they feature in global tournament, there are hige rounds of expectations that they will be champions. He said that a cricketer while he is stepping up every ladder to play for India understands fair bit of what sort of pressure they will have to deal with at the international level. “As a kid when you grow up to play cricket in india, you know what the adulation is, you know what the expectation is, you know what the pressure is gonna be like. We all crave it. What makes a Test cricketer in India very special is the ability to be able to handle pressure and repeat good performances over a period of time. The expectation for an indian team to win a tournament is always gonna be high,” the champion spinner said in an ICC video released on Twitter giving insights about the Indian side. Speedster Jasprit Bumrah, who has risen through the ranks at a rapid rate since his debut in 2018, said that he tries to ‘block’ out the ‘outside’ and ‘unnecessary’ noise of expectations as it can bring unnecessary pressure on him. He said Cricket, the game itself is already a very demanding game and so far he has chosen to take one day at a time instead of getting bogged down by the weight of expectations. “For me personally, I try not to focus on all those expectations. I try to take it one day at a time because if I let the outside noise affect me all the time, then there is unnecessary pressure. Anyway it’s a high pressure sport and a lot of responsibilities are on you. I look to block all of that, try to focus on things I have to do, try to enjoy the game and try to take it one day at a time. So rest, will take care of itself,” Bumrah said in the same video. Wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant, who has emerged as the firebrand cricketer of the Indian side over the last few series, conceded that he feels the ‘expectattion pressure.’ However, he said that he just does not want to feel ‘that kind of pressure’ as it can hamper his best efforts in the field and hence he focuses only to giving his best and making the team proud while out there in the field. “Yes, there is expectation pressure but if I think about that I can’t give my 100 per cent in the field. I don’t want to give myself that kind of pressure. I just want to give my 100 per cent each and every day and make my team proud. That’s the only thing I can do,” Pant said. Opener Rohit Sharma has a lot of things riding on his shoulders if India have to clich the first edition of the World Test Championship. He has the monumental task of combatting the Kiwi quartet of Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner. However, he said that he no longer feels weighed down under the huge amount of pressure of expectations and goes out on the field to just enjoy the game. He said that Cricket will always be played for a ‘limited’ period of time and hence it is important for individual players to enjoy the game itself to get relived off the pressure. “I used to feel it when I was 20. But right now, for me it’s all about just going out there and having fun. At the end of the day, this game is all about having fun. It’s a good bunch of individuals that we have together and cricket is played for limited period of time and you should remember to have as much fun as possible as well,” Rohit asserted. The first day of the World Test Championship final has been washed out by persistent rain in Southampton. The weather forecast for the remainder of the schedule does not look any proming either and both India and New Zealand will have to be at their absolute best to enforce result in the game if rain continues to affect the play.

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