Published 21:59 IST, June 7th 2023

Former India cricketer tears into ICC over 'uncomfortable' World Test Championship format

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra slams the International Cricket Council (ICC) for this peculiar format of World Test Championship final.

Reported by: Anirban Sarkar
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Image: BCCI | Image: self
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IND vs AUS: India face Australia in a much anticipated World Test Championship 2023 Final at the Kennington Oval on Wednesday. The 2021-23 Test cycle saw both the Indian team and the Aussies finish as the top two countries who are now featuring in the WTC final. Former opener Aakash Chopra dissected ICC's newest format.

All the countries are engaged in six Test match series across the two year cycle and the two teams with the most win percentage qualify for the final. But according to Aakash ICC should have arranged a three match Test series to decide the outcome of the WTC winner.

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Read More: WTC Final, IND vs AUS Live Score

Aakash Chopra criticises ICC's World Test Championship format

He tweeted, "Find it really uncomfortable that you are okay to have a championship spread over two years…but can’t find time for a three-test series at the end of the 24-month cycle. While everybody claims that it’s the Ultimate Format, nobody has the time to give the respect it deserves."

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"If you can’t accommodate three-tests, why bother with the finals at all? The team that has topped the table over 2-years should be given the mace…as it used to be the case earlier. In any case, there’s no uniformity in terms of how many Tests each series should have."

WTC final playing XIs

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Australia XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

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21:59 IST, June 7th 2023