WTC Final, India vs New Zealand: Rain likely to play spoilsport on Day one

The big day is here when World Test Championship (WTC) finalists India and New Zealand are going to battle it out for the top spot in Southampton but the rain gods seem to be upset with the proceedings and there is a chance that the Test match will get affected due to inclement weather.

According to the weather forecasts given by UK Met Department and other forecasting agencies, “long periods of rain and thunderstorms” are expected on Friday which is day one of the Test.

The UK Met Department further said that there is a yellow weather warning in place for thunderstorms active for Southampton from 6 am (BST) on Friday to 6 am on Saturday.

The weather is expected to clear up on Saturday though as per the latest Met Department reports.

Read Here: WTC Final – India vs NZ: BCCI announces playing XI against NZ

“Some areas could see up to 40 mm of rain across the day, although predictability on precise locations is low due to the nature of the weather conditions. The rain should ease slightly in Southampton overnight on Friday in to Saturday morning, leaving a mostly dry Saturday for the area,” the Met Department further said.

However, the weather reports collated from independent agencies indicate that the precipitation is likely to hover between 75-100 per cent in Southampton on most days of the WTC Final. The only saving grace is that there are likely to be high speed winds ranging from 14-23 km/hour during some periods of the day which might give some dry spells where play may be possible.

India have been practicing at Southampton over the past few days and New Zealand come off a confident series victory against England when they overcame them 1-0 in a 2-Test series.

Read Here: India-New Zealand Tests: How the two teams stack up historically

India announced their playing eleven on Thursday for the match.

India Playing eleven: Virat Kohli (c ), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant ( wk ), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishantr Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami.

New Zealand have also announced their fifteen-man squad which is as following:

Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Devon Conway, Colin de Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Will Young

India started their World Test Championship campaign with seven consecutive wins. However, things got awry afterwards. India had to toil hard till the final Test in the series against England earlier this year to book a place in the World Test Championship final.

The result summary of the Test matches between the two sides elucidates that India has won 21 of the 59 matches played between the two nations with the Kiwis managing to win in 12 encounters. A total of 26 Test matches have ended in draws.

This will be India’s first Test at a neutral venue while it will be the seventh such occasion for New Zealand.