The much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) is all set to kick-start with the first Ashes Test between England and Australia at Edgbaston on August 1. India will begin their World Test Championship campaign during the West Indies tour next month, while the two-match Test series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand starting from August 14 will also be played in the WTC fold.
The World Test Championship has been introduced by the ICC to give greater context to the traditional format of the game and will be played over the next two years. It will feature 9 of the 12 Test-playing nations, each of whom will play a Test series against six of the other eight teams. The top two sides will then contest in the final at Lord’s in June 2021.
With just one week to go for the World Test Championship, you must be wondering about the rules, teams, fixtures among other things. In this explainer, we will clear all your doubts regarding the marquee event.
Are all Test-playing teams playing the World Test Championship?
Simple answer, no. As you must be aware, Zimbabwe is no more allowed to feature in ICC tournaments, although they weren't in the scheme of things anyway when ICC designed the tournament. Apart from Zimbabwe, Test cricket's 2 newest entrants Afghanistan and Ireland will also not be involved in the inaugural edition of the WTC. Essentially it would mean that the top nine-ranked Test nations - Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies - will be part of the 1st World Test Championship.
Okay. But how will the winner be decided? Will a Super Over come into play?
For every match played under the WTC, a certain number of points will be up for grabs and the top 2 teams with the most points at the end of the 2-year cycle will play the final at Lord's in June 2021 to decide the winner. If the final is tied or drawn, the team which topped the points table at the end of the league stage will be declared the winner. However, the ICC rules haven't made it clear what would happen if both the teams are tied on points as well. A Super Over? Probably not. However, things might get clearer in the coming days once ICC clarifies the rules.
Will every Test played from August 1, 2019 be part of the World Test Championship?
No. The Tests played by WTC nations against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland will not be part of the WTC cycle but will still be relevant for the ICC Test Rankings. Marquee series like The Ashes and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be part of the WTC.
But will the 9 teams play each other during the World Test Championship?
Again, no. All 9 teams are scheduled to play a total of 6 Test series (3 Home, 3 Away) under the WTC fold meaning that no team will be able to play the rest others in the 2-year cycle.
This could mean that teams will end up playing an unequal number of matches...
Yes, but the ICC has tried to balance this by making a total of 120 Championship points being available for every series irrespective of its length.
This points system is confusing me. Could you explain more?
As explained in the table below, each Test series will have 120 Championship points up for grabs. The number of points for each Test will be equal to 120 divided by the total number of matches in the series. For example a win in either of the Tests of the 2-Test series between West Indies and India in August 2019 will award the winner 60 points but the corresponding award for winning an Ashes Test will be 24 points (details below).
If the match is a draw, both the teams will get only one-third of the points available for the match, thus incentivising teams to go for an outright result rather than trying to secure a draw.
Points Distribution of World Test Championship explained:
Is this a good system?
At least it's a start in the right direction. The system is not without its fallacies. For one, it doesn't give any extra weightage to away wins and if a team plays more Tests at home, winning most of them, it could still end up ranking higher than a team which has more away wins in tough conditions but playing lesser number of matches.
Also, there are chances that a series of lesser number of Tests (2-3) could be more rewarding than a gruelling 5-Test series like The Ashes. Given, this is the maiden edition of the World Test Championship, further changes in the system could be arrived at in the future as the ICC keeps learning from the outcomes.
Here is a list of complete fixtures of the World Test Championship in the 2019-21 cycle:
India
July-August 2019: 2 Tests v West Indies (A)
October-November 2019: 3 Tests v South Africa (H)
November 2019: 2 Tests v Bangladesh (H)
February 2020: 2 Tests v New Zealand (A)
December 2020: 4 Tests v Australia (A)
January-February 2021: 5 Tests v England (H)
England
July-August 2019: 5 Tests v Australia (H)
December 2019-January 2020: 4 Tests v South Africa (A)
March 2020: 2 Tests v Sri Lanka (A)
June-July 2020: 3 Tests v West Indies (H)
July-August 2020: 3 Tests v Pakistan (H)
January-February 2021: 5 Tests v India (A)
Australia
July-August-September 2019: 5 Tests v England (A)
November 2019: 2 Tests v Pakistan (H)
December 2019-January 2020: 3 Tests v New Zealand (H)
February 2020: 2 Tests v Bangladesh (A)
November-December 2020: 4 Tests v India (H)
February-March 2021: 3 Tests v South Africa (A)
South Africa
October 2019: 3 Tests v India (A)
December 2019-January 2020: 4 Tests v England (H)
July-August 2020: 2 Tests v West Indies (A)
January 2021: 2 Tests v Sri Lanka (H)
January-February 2021: 2 Tests v Pakistan (A)
February-March 2021: 3 Tests v Australia (H)
New Zealand
July-August 2019: 2 Tests v Sri Lanka (A)
December 2019-January 2020: 3 Tests v Australia (A)
February 2020: 2 Tests v India (H)
August-September 2020: 2 Tests v Bangladesh (A)
November-December 2020: 3 Tests v West Indies (H)
December 2020: 2 Tests v Pakistan (H)
Sri Lanka
July-August 2019: 2 Tests v New Zealand (H)
October 2019: 2 Tests v Pakistan (A)
March-April 2020: 2 Tests v England (H)
July-August 2020: 3 Tests v Bangladesh (H)
January 2021: 2 Tests v South Africa (A)
February-March 2021: 2 Tests v West Indies (A)
Pakistan
October 2019: 2 Tests v Sri Lanka (H)
November-December 2019: 2 Tests v Australia (A)
January-February 2020: 2 Tests v Bangladesh (H)
July-August 2020: 3 Tests v England (A)
December 2020: 2 Tests v New Zealand (A)
January-February 2021: 2 Tests v South Africa (H)
Bangladesh
November 2019: 3 Tests v India (A)
January-February 2020: 2 Tests v Pakistan (A)
February 2020: 2 Tests v Australia (H)
July-August 2020: 3 Tests v Sri Lanka (A)
August-September 2020: 2 Tests v New Zealand (H)
January-February 2021: 3 Tests v Windies (H)
West Indies
July-August 2019: 2 Tests v India (H)
June-July 2020: 3 Tests v England (A)
July-August 2020: 2 Tests v South Africa (H)
November-December 2020: 3 Tests v New Zealand (A)
January-February 2021: 3 Tests v Bangladesh (A)
February-March 2021: 2 Tests v Sri Lanka (H)
(With India Today inputs)
