Indian team will play 2 Tests against New Zealand and 5 Tests against Australia in coming time.
Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has backed Shubman Gill and co. to make it into the World Test Championship (WTC 2027) final, despite saying that they’ve fallen behind a bit. India is currently placed fifth in the WTC 2025-27 points table and needs to win at least five of their remaining seven Tests to finish in the top two.
Although India's performance in the current two-match Test series against Sri Lanka is encouraging, Shubman Gill and company would have a difficult time defeating New Zealand in the two-match Test series later this year, according to Dravid.
On November 19, 2026, India and New Zealand will begin their two-match Test series at Wellington's Basin Reserve. The second Test will take place at Christchurch's Hagley Oval.
“I’m hoping they do. It’ll be a great run if India can qualify for the WTC final from here. They’ve fallen behind a little bit, but the kind of quality that the Indian team has, you’re not going to write them off at any stage. They started off well against Sri Lanka, so that’s a good first step,” Dravid said on JioStar.
Regarding India's tour of New Zealand, Dravid stated that the two Test matches would lack the experience of retiring senior players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli.
“(Playing against) New Zealand away is always a challenge. They’re a tough team to play away from home. A lot of the young Indian boys have not played in those conditions, so that’s going to be a big challenge.
Hopefully, they can keep the guys fit and not have a lot of injuries over the next few months. We’re missing the experience of Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) and Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, these kinds of guys who’ve probably been there the last time India went. So that will be an interesting series as well," Dravid added.
Dravid said that the players on the visiting Australian team would be eager to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in January.
“Australia will be really exciting. A lot of their players will be very keen to do well in India. That’s a generation of truly great Australian players, a great Australian team that has not won in India. So, they’ll be keen to do that," Dravid said.
India is currently engaged with Sri Lanka in a two-Test series, having won the first Test in Galle by 165 runs, and is currently playing the second game in Colombo.
(PTI inputs)