ICC World Test Championship Final 2021-23 to be held from June 7-11 at Oval | ICC WTC Points Table: The second edition of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship will see its Final match being held from June 7 to 11 at the Oval in London, the ICC confirmed the news. A reserve day (June 12) has also been put in place by the governing cricketing body in case of an inevitable situation in the final.
Interestingly, the WTC 2021-23 final is slotted between the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Final, which is likely to be held on May 28 and the Ashes 2023 opener on June 16 in Birmingham.
So far Australia is placed comfortably atop the ICC WTC Points Table with a 75.56 win percentage, which includes 10 test wins, 4 draws and a single loss. Although no finalists have been officially confirmed yet, the Aussies are in the prime position to make their way through to the final of the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23.
Meanwhile, the other three teams in contention for the ICC World Test Championship final are India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
ICC World Test Championship Final qualification scenario
Three test series are left to go in the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship. The four-match test series between India and Australia, which starts today (9th Feb). New Zealand vs Sri Lanka two-match test series and South Africa vs West Indies two tests.
As mentioned earlier, Australia is seated at a dominant position in the points table. They just need to draw a test match in order to seal their berth in the ICC World Test Championship Final, given that they don’t lose a point in penalty due to slow over rates. If the Aussies could not manage to draw a game against India, they will have to rely on the other teams to do them a favour.
For team India, the situation is really challenging. The Indians will have to defeat Australia 3-1 or better in the four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in order to seal their position in the WTC final. Anything less than that, the permutation and combination will play its role.
For Sri Lanka and South Africa, nothing seems to be crystal clear for them. Even if they sweep their opponent, they will have to pray on the results of the other two fixtures.