World Test Championship bigger than all other ICC tournaments: Virat Kohli

A day after reports emerged about ICC introducing a couple of new tournaments in the next cycle, team India captain Virat Kohli has once again thrown his weight behind Test cricket, saying that the World Test Championship remains the pinnacle of all cricket tournaments.

"I think World Test Championship as an ICC tournament should be right up there. All the other tournaments for me they start under that. This is probably the biggest of them all as every team wants to make it to the final at the Lord's. We are no different," Kohli said ahead of the first Test match in Wellington.

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The captain also said that his side was in the zone and hence, they would want to qualify for the final as soon as possible, owing to which, the upcoming series will be very important.

"We are in that zone. We want to make sure that we qualify as soon as we can and be in that frame of mind to hopefully win that (championship)," Kohli added.

As per Kohli, the World Test Championship has added more context to Test matches and this has made the format far more exciting. The fact that this series will be India's first big away tour is not lost on the Indian skipper, who thinks this is a challenge his side would relish.

"It has made Test cricket more exciting and that's something we have experienced as a side although we haven't had too many games away from home. Couple of games in the West Indies and we haven't had a tour of Australia as a part of Test Championship. This is our first away tour since the start of home season," he said.