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 which will run from August 2019 to June 2021.
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.
Understanding the format
Any test match played between the top 9 ranked test teams will come under ICC test championships. Each team will play three home and three away series. Each team can fetch a maximum of 120 points from one series and the top two teams after the league stage will contest in the finals which is scheduled to take place in England in June 2021. It will bring the competitiveness amongst the teams and will also increase the numbers in stadium.
Some of the Test series in this Championship are part of a longer ongoing series, such as the 2019 Ashes series. Also, some of these nine teams will play additional Test matches during this period which are not part of this Championship.
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
The nine participating teams
India
England
Australia
South Africa
West Indies
Pakistan
Bangladesh
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
Three full members who will not participate
Ireland
Zimbabwe
Afghanistan
