Zaheer Khan feels Australia should have been awarded more points for their Edgbaston Test win over England | Getty
The much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) has kicked off with the first Ashes Test between England and Australia at Edgbaston on August 1. It 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.
The World Test Championship will see 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.
While ICC’s new concept to boost up the popularity of red-ball cricket is garnering praise to a large extent, there are some who still have doubts about its format and structure. In particular, the point system in the World Test Championship has come under the scanner and someone who has reservations against it is former India pacer Zaheer Khan.
“The talk around it has been for what 10 years now? I am happy that it on floor but there will be issues and the format will evolve. As a thought I think it is very nice, to have a championship around Test cricket. But when you look at the point system and look at how it is approached, there are lot of question marks around it. A lot of work needs to be done to put a structure around it,” Zaheer said during a chat on Cricbuzz.
As far as the point system in the World Test Championship is concerned – each series will have 120 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.
“The point system is very confusing. For the same amount of effort you can get 60 points or 24 points. Now Australia should have got a lot more points for the win in Birmingham but they will get less points because they are playing a 5-match series,” he added.
Matches played by each team
Each team will feature in six series, but the number of Tests will vary:
England: 22
Australia: 19
India: 18
South Africa: 16
West Indies: 15
New Zealand: 14
Bangladesh: 14
Pakistan: 13
Sri Lanka: 13
