New Zealand also defeated the Indian team in the third and last test match being played in Mumbai. Due to this defeat, not only the series was lost, but Team India also suffered a big setback in the World Test Championship. Now it has slipped to second place in WTC. The New Zealand team has ruined captain Rohit Sharma’s 2 years of hard work by losing just one series. After losing 3 consecutive matches, Team India is stuck and now it will have to overcome a big challenge to play the final of WTC.
What is the current situation in WTC?
Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, Team India has played a total of 14 matches in the current cycle of the World Test Championship. It has won 8 matches, lost 5, while 1 match was a draw. In this way the Indian team has achieved 98 points. ICC has also imposed a penalty of 2 points. Putting all these together, India has 58.33 percentage points and is currently at second place in the WTC table.
After losing the Pune Test, the Indian team was at number one with 62.82 percentage points. But after losing in Mumbai, there was a loss of 4.49 percentage points. Due to this, India slipped one place to second position. Now Australia has achieved the number 1 position with 62.50 percentage points. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is at third position with 55.56 percentage points, New Zealand is at fourth position with 54.55 percentage points and South Africa is at fifth position with 54.17 percentage points.
What needs to be done to play the final?
India has 5 matches left in the current cycle of WTC. If they want to qualify for the finals without depending on the results of any other team, then Rohit Sharma’s team will have to win at least 4 matches and draw 1. But all these matches will be played against Australia at their home in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For this reason the path to the final seems difficult for India. Australia has 7 matches left and needs 5 wins to go straight to the WTC finals. Apart from 5 home matches against India, it also has to play 2 test matches in Sri Lanka.
On the other hand, South Africa has a chance to play the WTC final for the first time. South Africa has a total of 4 matches left and it will have to win all of them to reach the finals. But the good thing for him is that his 2 matches will be against Sri Lanka and 2 on his home ground against Pakistan. Apart from this, New Zealand, which is at number four, now has to play 3 matches against England at home in this cycle. To go straight to the finals, it will also have to win all the matches. Sri Lanka, which is at third position in the points table, has 4 matches left, out of which it is necessary to win 3.