WTC final: Kohli’s India, Williamson’s New Zealand face-off in a final searching for context

India face New Zealand in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final on Friday in a match that could have a profound influence on cricket globally yet, at the moment, the only thing one feels is a profound lack of tension.

To be honest, it doesn’t feel like the final of a World Championship is about to begin. It doesn’t even feel like the start of a big series. There is no history to fall back on and a tournament that was envisaged to give context to Test cricket seems to be lacking some context of its own before the final.

In the press conference on the eve of the match, India skipper Virat Kohli played it down as ‘just another match’ but one certainly couldn’t imagine him saying that before the ODI World Cup final or T20 World Cup final. A win in the latter matches would make up their legacies but what will this do?

For the moment, we are unsure. Will the ICC continue to persist with the tournament? Will teams plan for it? Will teams yearn for it? Perhaps those answers will be sought and found in the coming years or perhaps, the tournament, itself, will quietly fade away.

The direction, though, could…

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