Heading into the third Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Team India were in driver’s seat to qualify for their second successive World Test Championships Final after winning back-to-back Tests in Nagpur and Delhi and leading the series 2-0. However, Australia have roared back to win the third Test inside three days by nine wickets to draw first blood but also ensure their qualification to the maiden WTC Final, which will take place at the Oval in London from June 7.
India’s road to the WTC Final now gets whole lot tougher, although not impossible yet. India hold on to second place on the standings with 60.29 of their possible WTC points and are in the box seat to qualify for the final, they can still be overtaken by Sri Lanka should results go against Rohit Sharma's team in the coming weeks.
A victory in the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad will ensure India’s spot in the WTC Final, but another victory for the visitors or a draw will keep the door open for Sri Lanka to overtake Rohit’s side and snatch the berth from India.
Sri Lanka have two Tests to play away from home against New Zealand this month and know they have to complete a 2-0 series sweep over the Kiwis to have any chance of snatching a spot in the WTC Final.
The victory at the Holkar Stadium on Friday (March 3) has helped Australia tally an impressive 68.52 of their possible WTC points and that means they will finish the current period in first place on the World Test Championship standings regardless of the result in the final Test of their ongoing series against India.
World Test Championships Standings after India vs Australia 3rd Test…
Australia – 68.52 points
India – 60.29 points
Sri Lanka – 53.33 points
South Africa – 52.38 points
England – 46.97 points
#WTC23 Final bound _
Congratulations Australia. See you in June! _ pic.twitter.com/H2YdaWPzYV
— ICC (@ICC) March 3, 2023
“When you lose a Test match, there’s a lot of things that didn't go our way. To start with, we didn’t bat well in the first innings. We understand how important it is to put runs on the board in the first innings. And obviously when they got a 80-90 run lead, we needed to put in a big performance with the bat but we couldn’t do that, taking just a 75-run lead. Honestly, we haven’t thought about it yet. We just finished this Test now so we need to regroup and try. We need to understand that we need to improve as a team,” Rohit said after losing the Test.
