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England haven’t been able to qualify for the final of ICC World Test Championship in three attempts.
Ben Stokes says he’s never specifically given a thought to WTC. (AP Photo)
The race for the ICC World Test Championship final is heating up with as many as five teams vying to make the cut. Currently, reigning champions Australia and two-time runners-up India are ahead in the race but New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka are close contenders too.
England are though out of the contention but they are not losing sleep over it either if Test captain Ben Stokes is to be believed. Speaking to BBC ahead of the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch, Stokes said he can’t remember ever specifically thinking about WTC.
“The World Test Championship is a bit confusing. I don’t look at it,” said Stokes. “Over a long period of time, if you’re playing really good cricket, you’re getting results that you want, you’ll end up finding yourself in the final and in the mix.”
“For me and this team it’s about taking it game by game, series by series, and if you end up finding yourself in the position where you happen to be in the final, then it’s great. I can’t really ever remember if I’ve ever given any real time specifically to thinking about the World Test Championship,” he added.
England are yet to qualify for the final of WTC. New Zealand and Australia have won the championships once each while India have finished runners-up twice.
India are currently sitting at the top of the WTC points table after winning the first Test of their ongoing five-match series in Australia.
Tom Latham’s New Zealand will host England for a three-match Test series from Thursday. The Kiwis are on cloud nine after they completed a historic 3-0 Test series whitewash of India recently.
However, for Latham, the result is now part of history as he looks ahead to the England challenge.
“It was an amazing couple of weeks, what we were able to do over in India,” Latham said. “Coming here, as cliche as it might sound, that is in the past. It’s all about coming here and focussing on what challenge lies ahead.
“New conditions, new team – for us, it’s about trying to take as much confidence as we can from that series. The way we played, the approach we tried to take into that series in conditions that were tough. Knowing that we can do it all around the world is the confidence we need to take into here. And obviously, nice coming home to familiar conditions,” he added.
