ICC World Test Championship: Everything you need to know

The thumping success of the ODI World Cup 2019 has made the highly confident International Cricket Council to kickstart the World Test Championship with pomp.

This much-awaited championship was in the talks for a long time and has finally taken a decisive shape. This Test championship is expected to bring more excitement to Test cricket and eventually increase the popularity of the game.

But what exactly is this ICC World Test Championship? Here are all the answers.

What is this ICC World Test Championship?

• The ICC World Test Championship is a world cup of Test cricket in a nutshell. On a more realistic note, it is a league of Test-playing nations where participating teams play a certain number of matches to qualify for the finals and then the winner of the final match is crowned as the World Test Champion.

Do all Test teams participate in the Test Championship?

• No. Currently, there are 12 Test teams but only the top nine will compete in this tournament. They are Australia, Bangladesh, England, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and West Indies.

What is the format and schedule of the championship?

The Test Championship will be played over a 2-year cycle starting from 01 August 2019 to June 2021. During this duration, 27 Test series’ will feature in the championship which is a total of 72 Test matches.

It should be noted that not all Test matches played during this duration will be a part of the Championship. The matches which are mutually agreed by the playing teams are a part of this Championship.

Every team will play three home and three away series and depending on the points earned during these Test series’ they will be placed in the points table. The top two teams in the points table will qualify for the finals which will be played at Lord’s cricket ground, England in 2021.

Also, during the Championship a team will not play against all remaining 8 teams.

What are India’s matches in the Championship?

• Windies vs India (Away) in 2019, 2 Match series
• India vs Bangladesh (Home) in 2019, 2 Match series
• New Zealand vs India (Away) in 2020, 2 Match series
• Indis vs South Africa (Home) in 2019, 3 Match series
• Australia vs India (Away) in 2020-21, 4 Match series
• India vs England (Home) in 2021, 5 Match series

What is the point system for this Test championship

The Test championship looks at a Test series and not a Test match. For every Test series there are 120 points. So if it is a 2-match Test series, every win offers 60 points and if it is a 5-match Test series every win offers 24 points.

For a 2-match Test series:
Points for a win: 60
Points for a tie: 30
Points for a draw: 20
Points for a defeat: 0

For a 3-match Test series:
Points for a win: 40
Points for a tie: 20
Points for a draw: 13
Points for a defeat: 0

For a 4-match Test series:
Points for a win: 30
Points for a tie: 15
Points for a draw: 10
Points for a defeat: 0

For a 5-match Test series:
Points for a win: 24
Points for a tie: 12
Points for a draw: 8
Points for a defeat: 0

What happens if the Final of Test Championship ends in a tie or draw:

Well, this is the most pertinent question (Thank you World Cup 2019).

For starters, there is no super over and there is no count of the boundaries. If the final is drawn or tied, the team topping the points table will be crowned as the Test champion. Which also means that in the finals, the team topping the table can settle for a draw and walk away with the trophy. More reasons for topping the table for teams!

But what if both teams have the same points? Now we enter the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. There is no official statement by ICC on this regard and hopefully, ICC will make things clear in the upcoming days.