After losing the Test series 0-2 against South Africa, Team India has slipped from fourth to fifth in the World Test Championship rankings. Team India has played the most matches so far in the WTC 2025-27 cycle, winning four, losing four, and drawing one. Consequently, it has 52 points and a win percentage of 48.15. Can India still reach the WTC final?
Can India qualify for WTC final?
The answer is: yes, India can still reach the WTC final, but they will need to perform strongly in the upcoming matches. It’s a different matter that a team that has suffered humiliating defeats at home is unlikely to achieve this. If a team wins a Test, it earns 12 points. Losing a match earns none. If the match is drawn, both teams receive four points each. India has won four matches in this WTC cycle (4 x 12, i.e., 48 points) and drawn one Test (4 points). Consequently, it has 52 points.
What they have to do now?
If we look at the last two World Test Championships, the teams that reached the finals have had a win percentage of 60 to 70 percent. In the 2023-25 WTC cycle, South Africa and Australia reached the final. South Africa had a win percentage of 69.44, while Australia had a win percentage of 67.54. Similarly, in the 2021-23 cycle, India reached the final with a win percentage of 58.8 percent. The other finalist, Australia, had a win percentage of 66.67.
India can qualify for the finals if it finishes with a win percentage of 60. In this scenario, it will have 130 points. India will play a total of 18 Tests in this round, of which it has already played nine. Nine matches remain. Four of these will be played away from India and five at home. Team India will play two Test series each against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Australia will tour India for a five-Test series.
India currently has 52 points and needs to gain 78 more to reach 130. If India wins six of the remaining nine matches (6 x 12, equivalent to 72 points) and three draws (3 x 4, equivalent to 12 points), it will receive a total of 84 points. Similarly, if India wins seven of the nine matches, it will still have more than 84 points. In such a scenario, the team could potentially qualify for the WTC final. However, given the current state of the team, expecting such a performance is futile.
