Last time India became World Champions without facing Pakistan was in the year 1983, when Kapil Dev led team lifted the World Cup from the Lord’s balcony after pipping a much fancied West Indies in the finals. Indian team led by Virat Kohli will now have an opportunity to become champions of the world without facing arch-rivals Pakistan. India is not scheduled to face Pakistan in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship 2019-21 season.
The upcoming Ashes series will be played between Australia and England from 1st August and will mark the start of World Test Championship. India will begin their campaign against low lying West Indies in the two match test series in August. ICC World Test Championship will run from August 2019 to June 2021 and the final will be played in London.
ICC replaced Champions trophy with Test Championship to increase the popularity of longest format of the game. In the era of T20 cricket, test cricket was becoming a thing of past and very few people were seen in the stadium. Now with the introduction of test championships, ICC will hope that it becomes a elixir for the format.
India’s full schedule for the ICC Test Championship 2019-2021
(Away, 2 Tests)West Indies vs India: August-September 2019
(Home, 3 Tests) India vs South Africa: October 2019
(Home, 2 Tests) India vs Bangladesh: November 2019
(Away, 2 Tests) New Zealand vs India: February-March 2020
(Away, 4 Tests) Australia vs India: November 2020-January 2021
(Home, 5 Tests) India vs England: January-March 2021
Virat Kohli names the favourite
India is currently ranked number one in test rankings and reflecting on the same, world number one test batsman- Virat Kohli said that they have done well in the longest format and will be fancying their chances to win the inaugural World Test Championship.
“Test cricket is very challenging and coming out on top in the traditional form is always highly satisfying. The Indian team has done really well in recent years and will be fancying its chances in the championship,” Virat Kohli said in an ICC media release.
