World Test Championship

India had played Kiwis in the WTC cycle, losing 2-0 in an away series last year. The Kiwis pace bowlers turned out to be unplayable as they ran through India's batting order. Ahead of the WTC final, there has been talk about how New Zealand's pace bowlers could again trouble the Indians.Whatever be the nature of the pitch, India will have to start well whether they bat or bowl.

With 891 points, former Australia skipper Smith is the world No.1 Test batsman while Williamson is now second with 886 points. Kohli, with 814 points displaced England captain Joe Root, who is now fifth with 797 points. Two more Indians featuring in the top-10 - wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma with 747 points each - are joint sixth.

From the main squad that has travelled to England, Mayank Agarwal, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and KL Rahul have been left out. Of these players, Patel and Sundar had played in India's previous Test, the fourth and final match against England in Motera, Ahmedabad, in March.

The final match will start on June 18 at Ageas Bowl, Southampton. "The prize money for the team finishing third in the ICC WTC standings is $450,000 (Rs.3.38 crore approx). The team fourth on the table will be awarded $350,000 (Rs.2.62 crore), the one that finishes fifth gets $200,000 (Rs.1.5 crore approx) while the remaining four teams will get $100,000 each (Rs.75 lakh per team)," ICC said in the statement.

"For me personally, I just want to get something out that has some pace, bounce and carry in the pitch. It can be a hard thing to do in England as the weather does not help us most of the time, but the forecast in the build-up is good with a lot of sun, so we are hopeful that we will get some pace and a hard pitch without over-rolling it and killing it," Lee was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.com.

"The third day of intra-squad match simulation was about settling down & finding that rhythm. [emoticon: thumbs-up twice] #TeamIndia," tweeted the Board of Control for Cricket in India along with a brief video recapping the day's play. The third day saw Hanuma Vihari and Shubman Gill opening the innings with the former, who had a terrible outing with Warwickshire county this season, shown glancing the ball.

While India have as many as five batsmen among top 15 top scorers in the tournament, New Zealand have none. New Zealand's batting mainstay, skipper Kane Williamson, is the highest placed, at 16th in the list with 817 runs scored at 58.35. Part of the reason why he is so low in the run-getters' list is because he has played just nine matches as against the Indians above him in the list who have played many more games.

"We have had our first group training session and the intensity was high [emoticon: fire]. #TeamIndia's [emoticon: flag of India] preparations are on in full swing for the #WTC21 Final [emoticon: raised hands]," the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) tweeted on Thursday.

New Zealand have already been bolstered by the arrival of left-arm pace bowler Trent Boult, who is likely to feature in the second Test. Southee, Wagner and Jamieson all bowled over 40 overs across two innings in the first Test at Lord's.

With regard to the follow-on rule, ICC playing conditions for regular WTC matches (clause 14) state: "14.1.1: The side which bats first and leads by at least 200 runs shall have the option of requiring the other side to follow their innings. 14.1.2: The same option shall be available in matches of shorter duration with the minimum leads as follows: 150 runs in a match of 3 or 4 days; 100 runs in a 2-day match; 75 runs in a 1-day match."