A busy home and away Test summer is lined up for India, starting with the Test series at home against Bangladesh and concluding with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, with the
World Test Championship
(WTC) final scheduled to begin on June 11 at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London.
So in nine months from now, the 2023-25 WTC cycle will reach its climax where the top two teams from the
WTC points table
will contest in the final.
At present, last two editions' runners-up India are on top, followed by the defending champions Australia.
Going into the two-Test series against Bangladesh, India's win percentage on the WTC table is 68.52%, while it is 62.5% for Australia.
Their closest challengers on the third spot, the 2019-21 WTC champions New Zealand, have a 50% win percentage currently. That makes India's three-Test home series against New Zealand, which follows the Bangladesh tour, critical.
After those five Tests against the Bangla Tigers and Kiwis, India will travel to Australia for a series of five Tests to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which could decide who finishes on top of the WTC table.
According to calculations mentioned in a story published by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru website, India will need to win seven of those 10 Tests to maintain their current win percentage. That's not beyond India if they manage to win all five Tests at home (2 vs Bangladesh and 3 vs New Zealand). Considering India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on their last two tours of Australia, adding two more wins Down Under can't be ruled out.
But in any case India would want to keep that percentage above 60 to be on the safer side, i.e., to finish in the top two, Rohit Sharma & Co will have to add 63 points more to the current tally of 74 they have achieved from 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in 9 Tests so far.
According to the report on RCB website, India need a minimum of five wins and a draw in the next 10 Tests to stay above 60 percent. In case Team India can add another win to that and make it six, the win percentage will rise to 64.03 percent.
Australia, who are currently No. 2 on the table and have seven Tests left to play, need 47 points more to stay above 60 percent. For that, they will need four wins or three wins and a draw.
New Zealand's five Tests out of the remaining eight are in Asia, including three against India. They need six wins or five wins and a draw to end up with a win percentage of above 60.
HERE'S HOW THE WTC TABLE LOOKS AT PRESENT
English (US) ·