"Haven't conquered it in recent times" - Akash Chopra highlights India's biggest problems of playing in the UK ahead of WTC final

Former batter Aakash Chopra recently pointed out India's biggest problems ahead of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final. India will square off against Australia in the all-important summit clash at the Kenning Oval from Wednesday, June 7 onwards.

After a grueling Indian Premier League (IPL) season, the Indian players will now turn their focus to red-ball cricket. Barring Cheteshwar Pujara, almost every Indian player was part of this year's IPL, and the transition from T20s to Test cricket will be difficult.

Speaking in a video shared by the ICC, Aakash Chopra also highlighted India's pain points ahead of the WTC final.

"Test cricket has not been played in these conditions for a long time," Chopra said. "In fact, it's been a long time since we played Test cricket. For the last two months, you have played T20 cricket continuously. When you play T20 cricket, you play with a different template, you play in different teams. It's been two-and-a-half months since you played together. Same story for Australia."

"It's not a great thing," he added. "In such a situation, if you playing at home, let's say the first Test match in home conditions, you don't even need to think, you will play that match very easily and win it. Everyone will understand their respective roles."

Aakash Chopra also spoke about the Indian batters' recent struggles in English conditions.

"But when you go to overseas conditions, many times it happens that in the first match, it takes a little time to get your bearings right," he stated. "And Test cricket, facing Australia in English conditions if it is overcast, a little greenish pitch then it is possible that till the time if you find your bearings, the competition will slip out of your hand."

"So there is definitely a danger of one thing that in the last two-and-a-half months playing T20, that too for different teams," Chopra added. "Secondly, I also feel that our main players, be it, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane or Cheteshwar Pujara, batting in these English conditions, haven't conquered it in recent times."

While Virat Kohli averages a paltry 27.66 in England over the last two years, Ajinkya Rahane averages only 15.57. Shubman Gill, on the other hand, has managed to score just 21 runs in the only Test he has played in the UK.

Rohit Sharma has been India's best player over the last two years on English shores. The skipper has scored 368 runs in four matches at an average of 52.57, with the highest score of 127.

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India's squad for the WTC final

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, and Ishan Kishan (wk).

Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, and Suryakumar Yadav.