New Zealand close to the World Test Championship final
The recent victory of New Zealand over the West Indies has boosted their aspirations of reaching the final of the World Test Cricket Championship (WTC), which will be held at Lord’s in June 2021. The New Zealand team is on the verge of reaching the top spot in the Test rankings, being only 0.086 points behind Australia, after their victory in Wellington.After the match, the ICC’s predictive tool showed New Zealand at the top, generating some confusion. However, the ICC clarified that Australia holds the first place with 116.461 rating points, while New Zealand has 116.375.
Australia could consolidate its leadership if it wins the home series against India. For their part, New Zealand’s two victories over the West Indies gave them 300 WTC points in the current cycle, which ends on March 31, 2021. If New Zealand repeats the 2-0 result against Pakistan later in their season, they will finish with 420 points in five series. This would mean that India would need five wins, or four wins and three draws, in their last eight Test matches to prevent New Zealand from reaching the WTC final. Due to the current situation, the ICC modified the classification criteria, moving from absolute points to a percentage of points played, that is, points per series played. Australia currently leads the WTC table, with 82.2% of the points won. If New Zealand wins both matches against Pakistan, it will finish with 84 points per series played, or 70% of the points played. India, currently with 360 points in four series, will have played six series at the end of its series against Australia and England. They will need to surpass 504 points to beat New Zealand’s score. Each victory in the remaining Tests will be worth 30 points, and draws will award 10 points. As for the rankings, Australia could extend its lead at number 1 or concede ground to New Zealand, depending on the outcome of the India and New Zealand series.
