The Indian Test team is going through transition after the retirements of Ashwin, Kohli and Rohit.
Team India, under a young new captain Shubman Gill, kicked off their World Test Championship 2025-27 campaign on a strong note as they pulled off a 2-2 draw in the five-match Test series against England away from home.
The victories at Edgbaston and The Oval gave India valuable points and they are currently occupying third spot in the WTC standings.
India earned 28 points from two wins and a draw, thus standing with 46.67 PCT after their first series of the new cycle. India reached the finals of WTC in the first two editions, where they lost to New Zealand and Australia respectively.
For the 2023-25 cycle, South Africa and Australia reached the title clash, where the former ended their long-standing drought for an ICC trophy.
Former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra believes India, after missing out on qualifying for the finals in the previous cycle, will be a leading contender to reach the summit clash this time.
However, he further stated that one can’t be too bullish about India’s chances, given the side is going through a transition period after the retirements of Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Moreover, the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteswar Pujara, and Mohammed Shami have fallen out-of-favour with the national selectors lately.
“India’s home series are against Australia, the West Indies and South Africa. I feel we will win all three of these series. We will win against the West Indies and South Africa, although it might not be that straightforward as we are also going through a transition, and beat Australia as well,” Chopra said on this YouTube channel.
“One of our away series is against Sri Lanka. I am expecting us to garner a lot of points there. New Zealand is tough. I think we should be okay. We will once again be in the running. We will be in the top three or four. Of course, since we are going through a transition, you cannot bullishly say that India would qualify for sure, but I consider India to be a strong contender,” he added.
In the ongoing WTC cycle, India will host Australia for the five-match Test series and will take on West Indies and South Africa at home. The remaining two away series will be against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Besides India, Chopra reckons Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have good chances of making it into the finals this time around. “Pakistan’s home series are against New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka. They should actually be okay. Pakistan should do well at home, unless they start making roads. Their away series are against England, the West Indies and Bangladesh,” Chopra stated.
“Pakistan have a favorable draw again. Win in the West Indies and Bangladesh, compete a little in England, and beat Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa at home. Pakistan have a good chance. However, I have said that about Pakistan earlier as well when their away series were in the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, they didn’t win a single series at home,” he remarked.