World Test Championship Final Postponed, to be Played From June 18-22: Reports

The final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) will now be played out from June 18 to 22 with June 23 acting as a reserve day. The decider was originally scheduled to be held from June 10 to 14 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.

But the authorities have now decided to postpone the final keeping in mind that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be hosting the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the month of April and May in India.

The Test championship is not just a project close to the ICC’s heart, even stars like Kohli have made it clear how it is an integral part of the system, and winning it would be the ultimate cherry on the cake.

“I think Test Championship, as an ICC tournament, should be right up there. All the other tournaments, for me, start under that. This is going to be the biggest of them all. Every team wants to make it to the final at Lord’s. And we are not any different. We want those points and make sure that we qualify as early as we can, and be in that frame of mind to hopefully win that,” he had said.

Currently, India and New Zealand are placed at the top two spots in the WTC standings. The Virat Kohli-led side has 430 points in their tally after their historic series win against Australia Down Under last week from five series and 13 matches out of which they have managed to register nine wins with a PCT (Percentage of points) of 71.7%.

Kane Williamson & Co. occupy the second spot with 420 points from five series and winning 11 matches with a PCT of exactly 70%.

Australia, on the other hand, is sitting in third place in the WTC points table with 69.2%, having bagged 332 points from five series.

India and England will face each other in the four-match Test series in February while Australia will be up against South Africa in the three-match Test series.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday confirmed that England will start their home international summer with a two-match Test series against New Zealand, commencing from June 2. Joe Root & Co. will be hosting the Kiwis for two Test matches at Lord’s (June 2-6) and Edgbaston (June 10-14) respectively.

The top spot is occupied by India with 71.7%, having bagged 430 points from the five series that they have played in the WTC cycle of 2019-2021 followed by New Zealand in second place with 70 percentage and 420 points.