ICC World Test Championship Final to get Postponed

The final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) has been postponed and now will be played from June 18 to 22 with June 23 which will be acting as a reserve day, ANI reported on Monday. The summit clash of the competition was originally scheduled to be held from June 10 to 14 at the legendary Lords.

ANI has reported that it was done keeping in mind the gap between the World Test Championship final and the 2021 Indian Premier League final but dates yet to be officially announced and any quarantine period that players might have to go through keeping in mind the coronavirus pandemic. It is almost certain that India will be a part of the final.

Currently, India and New Zealand are at the top two spots in the World Test Championship standings, where Team India has 430 points after playing five series, while New Zealand has 420 points after playing five series.

Also, India will play one more series against England as part of the World Test Championship, and also Australia, who is at the third spot will be playing against South Africa. If Australia wishes to make it to the World Test Championship finals, they would be required to win against South Africa.

Last year, the ICC decided to change the point-rating system of the World Test Championship due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the WTC table has now been revised to rank teams based on the percentage of points earned from the series played, which means teams are ranked in order of percentage of points earned.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday confirmed that England would start their match on the home soil as the first summer international this year with a two-match Test series against New Zealand, starting from 2nd June at Lord’s from June 2-6 and in Edgbaston from June 10-14.

The Test championship is not just a project close to the ICC’s major sporting event, even stars like Kohli have made it clear that it is an integral part of the system, and winning the WTC 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,” Kohli said.