WTC Final India vs New Zealand: Commentary Panel, Umpires, Match Referee & All You Need To Know

The WTC Final will see India go against New Zealand from June 18-22 where both teams will battle for the first World Test Championship title at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. The Kane Williamson-led New Zealand team has also begun with the 2-match Test series against England from June 2. After concluding India vs New Zealand WTC Final, the India squad for WTC Final will face England in the India vs England Test Series that will consist of 5 Test matches starting from August 4 at Trent Bridge.

Meanwhile, ahead of the mega event, let us look at the commentary panel, match officials for the World Test Championship.

Commentators For WTC final

The commentators for different languages for the World Test Championship final are given below:

English

Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton, Ian Bishop, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Karthik, Simon Doull, Isa Guha, Sunil Gavaskar, Craig MacMillan

Hindi

Aakash Chopra, Sanjay Bangar, VVS Laxman, Irfan Pathan and Jatin Sapru

Tamil

L Balaji, Hemang Badani, Abhinav Mukund, Muthuraman R and Yomahesh Vijayakumar

Telugu

Kaushik NC, Ashish Reddy, Kalyan Krishna Doddapaneni, M.S.K Prasad and Venugopal Rao

On-Field Umpires For WTC Final

England’s Richard Illingworth and Michael Gough will be the on-field umpires for the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand, starting June 18 in Southampton.

Match Referee For WTC Final

Former England opener Chris Broad will be the ICC match referee for the marquee game.

TV Umpires & Fourth Official

Richard Kettleborough, also a member of the elite panel, will be the TV umpire, and Alex Wharf of the Emirates ICC International Panel of Umpires the fourth official, the ICC said in a statement.

Playing Conditions For The WTC Final

The teams will be held joint champions in an event case of a draw or tie.

The match will be played using Grade 1 Dukes cricket balls.

Short Runs – The Third Umpire will automatically review any call of a ‘short run’ by the On-field Umpire and communicate the decision to the On-field Umpire prior to the next ball being bowled.

Player Reviews – The fielding captain/dismissed batsman may confirm with the on-field umpire whether a genuine attempt has been made to play the ball before initiating an LBW review.

DRS Reviews – For LBW reviews, the height margin of the wicket zone has been increased to the top of the stumps to ensure the same umpire’s call margin around the stumps for both height and width.

Reserve day – June 23, which has been kept as a reserve day, will come into consideration should net playing time (30 hours of play i.e., six hours a day) be lost due to any reason whatsoever. That said, the reserve day cannot be used to procure a result or outcome but only to compensate for the lost time or overs.

WTC Winning Prize

• Winners – USD 1.6 million

• Runners-up – USD 800,000

• Tie/Draw – USD 1.2 million each

WTC Broadcast and Live Streaming Details

• India: Star Sports Network, Jio TV, Disney+Hotstar VIP

• Pakistan: PTV Sports

• New Zealand: Sky Sports NZ, Sky Go App

• England: Sky Sports

• South Africa: SuperSport

• Australia: Fox Cricket, Foxtel

• USA: ESPN+, Hotstar