World Test Championship: South Africa’s defeat to England opens up the points table for India, Pakistan – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

After South Africa’s 1-2 defeat to England in the recently concluded three-match Test series, the World Test Championship points table has been left wide open for the top two spots.

The defeat against Three Lions have dropped them to the second spot from a leading position with 60 percentage points.

While Proteas’ win would have significantly strengthened their claim to play the final in 2023 in London, England have benefitted the likes of India and Pakistan winning two out of three games.

Proteas’ stern Test will now be against Australia, Down Under when they play three Tests.

The three-Test series will be equally important for Australia and those three games might act as an eliminator for one of the two, depending on the performance of other teams.

Both the teams will also play West Indies at their homes and will start as favourites to win those matches.

WTC Points table/ ICC

Australia comfortably sit at the top of the table with 70 percentage points currently and are highly probable to make it to the finals. However, they play India in India for four Tests, which might prove to be the determining series for them.

Losing several matches against the Rohit Sharma-led side might throw them down the points table.

India is ranked fourth on the table with 52.08 percentage points, but not far behind Sri Lanka’s 53.33. The Men-in-Blue will travel to Bangladesh for two games and then host Australia for four games. They find themselves in a tight situation as winning all six matches will push them to 68.06 percentage points, and they might still depend on the other teams’ results.

However, considering Australia play South Africa, one of the two teams might drop down quite significantly and that shall propel India to the top two, considering they win all or most of their matches.

Sri Lanka, on the contrary, despite being placed third have a bleak chance to make it to the top two as they have only two games remaining against New Zealand in New Zealand. Winning both the Tests – a dubious possibility will only lead them to 61.1 percentage points.

Pakistan are also in close vicinity of India at 51.85 percentage points. But they have five home Tests to be played – three against rejuvenated England and two against the Kiwis.

A win in all five will thrust them to 69.05 percentage points. But, England’s new avatar will prove to be a strong contest for them in the three matches, and a loss or draw there will significantly impact their overall tally. Remember, Australia won the three-match series 1-0 in Pakistan.

England, meanwhile, have bettered their tally to 38.6 percentage points after winning six Tests of the seven this summer. However, their earlier losses to Australia in the Ashes and to India last summer, have made sure that they cannot make it to the top two. A heavy 12 points penalty during the Ashes only acted as a catalyst to their ouster.

Despite of being in their best form at the time, England will not be a part of the final that will be played in their own backyard. However, they can help the other sides by defeating Pakistan in their last series of the cycle.

West Indies are the sixth team that have a mathematical chance to reach the finals, but with four away Tests left in their cycle – two each against Australia and South Africa, only a cricketing muggle would bet on them.

Despite six teams mathematically possible to reach the finals, only three teams – India, Australia, and South Africa have a realistic chance to face off in London in 2023.

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