ICC World Test Championship: First day's play abandoned without a ball bowled for 1st time in 7 Tests in Southampton

The opening day of the ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand was washed out due to incessant rain. Not a single ball was bowled in Southampton with the toss yet to take place as well. Interestingly, this is the first time in seven Tests that the opening day of a Test match got washed out without a single delivery being bowled at the venue.

Only once did a game in the longest format witness a full day being washed out due to rain. However, the Indian camp is not affected as confirmed by fielding coach R Sridhar.

“I think the XI which has been announced takes the pitch and conditions out of the equation. I think it is an XI which can play and perform on any given surface, in any given weather conditions. Having said that, the toss is not yet over. So if it needs to be taken, a decision will be taken at the time of the toss,” Sridhar said as quoted by ICC.

“To keep them (the players) in a good mental space, that is something that is very important. Because they are going to be on and off the field with the weather. So they will have to know how to keep their concentration going, switching on, switching off. That is something all the players are aware of, they are a very experienced bunch of players. They have played a few finals, won a few tournaments and played a few Test matches, each one in that XI. So they all know how to do it and are in a good frame of mind, a good space,” he added.

“It’s disappointing” – Latham on ICC World Test Championship final first day washout

New Zealand vice-captain Tom Latham expressed his disappointment but admitted that he was not surprised.

“It’s disappointing – the rain today, it was forecast unfortunately. But it’s one of those things that as cricketers you need to adapt. It’s something we can’t control. It’s just about waiting and when we get the opportunity to come on, making sure we’re ready. The beauty of it is there is day six as well. So there is a little extra time that we can use then. We’ll wait and see and have a look tomorrow,” he said.

“I guess for us it’s just about waiting and trying to adapt to whatever weather conditions we’re facing, whether it’s tomorrow or whenever it may be. It’s important we aren’t caught on the hop and that we’re ready when called upon. We’ve been in this situation many times as cricketers, so it’s about trying to stay ready. Looking at conditions and the amount of water that has fallen since yesterday afternoon, there probably wasn’t a huge chance that we were going to play today. So guys have just been trying to relax. There has been a lot of table tennis, a lot of darts being played up in the team room. Guys are pretty relaxed and we’ll have to give it another shot tomorrow and see what happens,” added Latham.