India’s World Test Championship schedule after away Test Series with England

The superlative effort by the Indian team at the just concluded Test match at The Oval in England at least ensured that they wouldn’t lose the series. Now, the two teams would travel to Manchester where the fifth and final test will start from September 10.

India’s World Test Championship schedule after England Tests

Ever since the pandemic early last year, the schedule of the Future Tours Program (FTP) has been thrown haywire. In the new cricket calendar, current World Test Champions New Zealand would be traveling to India in November and are scheduled to play 2 test matches. 

South Africa would arrive next immediately after the series against the Kiwis where they’re scheduled to play three test matches against India. Dates of these engagements would be released soon. In the second half of 2022, India would host Australia as well in a four-match test series. Last time, India had played host to Australia was in 2017, where the home team won the 4-match series 2-1. Significantly, India has traveled to Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21 and won the test series on both occasions. 

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Changes in World Test Championship 2021-23

While in the 2019-21 cycle, a test series entailed a total of 120 points (which meant a win in 5-match series ensured 24 points, in 2-match series a win translated to 60 points), in the current cycle, 12 points would be given to the victors. In the event of a tie both teams would get 6 points, while a draw would give 4 points each to the teams. India will play a total of 19 tests (three home and three away series) in this period.

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New Zealand won the inaugural World Test Championship after it culminated with their victory over India in the match played in Southampton in June. Now, the two-year test cycle has started again with the ongoing five-test match series between England and India. The nine test nations wouldn’t be playing the same amount of matches over the next two years and hence the percentage of points would be calculated to decide the two finalists.

“This system allows the relative performance of teams to be compared at any point in time, meaning the cancellation of any matches or series for any reason does not directly impact the points table,” the ICC has stated in a release on its website.