Published 14:21 IST, February 8th 2023
India's WTC Final Qualification Scenario EXPLAINED ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy series
The World Test Championship final will take place from 7 to 11 June at The Oval. India, Australia and Sri Lanka are the only teams that can play WTC final.
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India and Australia are all set to lock horns against each other in a four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Test series) starting February 9. The first match will be played in Nagpur, followed by Delhi, Dharamsala, and Ahmedabad. Ahead of the highly-anticipated contest, let's take a look at the updated ICC World Test Championship points table and what can India do to make it to the final of the competition.
WTC Final: How can India qualify?
- Currently, only Australia, India, and Sri Lanka have a chance to qualify for the WTC final with only three series left in the cycle. India will play Australia, Sri Lanka will lock horns against New Zealand, and South Africa will host the West Indies.
- The only scenario in which Australia will fail to qualify for the WTC final is if they lose the four-match Test series against India by 4-0 and Sri Lanka wins their series against New Zealand by 2-0.
- India, on the other hand, will need to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a margin of 3-1 or better to qualify for the WTC final. The results of the other two remaining series in the current WTC cycle will not matter if India beat Australia by 3-1 or better.
- In case India and Australia play out a 2-2 draw and Sri Lanka manages a 2-0 win against the Kiwis, the WTC final will be played between Australia and Sri Lanka. India will then be knocked out of the race.
ICC World Test Championship 2021-23: Standings
| POS | Team | PCT (%) | PTS | W | L | D | SER | PEN |
| 1 | Australia | 75.56 | 136 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| 2 | India | 58.93 | 99 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 5 | -5 |
| 3 | Sri Lanka | 53.33 | 64 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 4 | South Africa | 48.72 | 76 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | England | 46.97 | 124 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 6 | -12 |
| 6 | West Indies | 40.91 | 54 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | -2 |
| 7 | Pakistan | 38.1 | 64 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| 8 | New Zealand | 27.27 | 36 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 9 | Bangladesh | 11.11 | 16 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Full squads
India's squad (first two Tests): Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia's squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
FIXTURES
1st Test, Nagpur: February 9-13 - 9:30 pm IST
2nd Test, Delhi: February 17-21 - 9:30 pm IST
3rd Test, Dharamsala: March 1-5 - 9:30 pm IST
4th Test, Ahmedabad: March 9-13 - 9:30 pm IST
Image: AP
14:22 IST, February 8th 2023