World Test Championship Finals: Champions Since 2021
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have won the three completed World Test Championship finals. New Zealand beat India in 2021, Australia overcame India in 2023, and South Africa defeated Australia in 2025. Each champion earned the ICC Test Championship Mace after coming through a two-year league cycle and winning a one-off final.
World Test Championship final results at a glance
The WTC was introduced to give greater context to bilateral Test series. Nine teams compete across a cycle, with the top two sides reaching the final. The championship began with the 2019 Ashes, and each completed final has produced a different winner. India reached the first two finals but finished runner-up on both occasions, while Australia appeared in consecutive finals in 2023 and 2025.
| WTC cycle | Champions | Runners-up | Final venue | Result |
| 2019–2021 | New Zealand | India | Rose Bowl, Southampton | New Zealand won by 8 wickets |
| 2021–2023 | Australia | India | The Oval, London | Australia won by 209 runs |
| 2023–2025 | South Africa | Australia | Lord’s, London | South Africa won by 5 wickets |
The table also shows how quickly the finalists changed. New Zealand’s success marked the first WTC title, Australia followed with its maiden championship, and South Africa then claimed its first WTC crown. As of October 2026, no team has won the competition more than once.
2019–2021: New Zealand became the inaugural champions
New Zealand won the first World Test Championship final, defeating India by eight wickets at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. The match was played from 18 to 23 June 2021 and was affected by rain, with the opening and fourth days washed out. A reserve day allowed the contest to reach a conclusion, and New Zealand completed the chase in the final session.
India made 217 in their first innings and 170 in their second. New Zealand replied with 249 before reaching 140 for two to win. Kane Williamson captained New Zealand, while Kyle Jamieson was named Player of the Final. The result gave New Zealand the first Test Championship trophy and established the final as the decisive event at the end of the league stage.
The inaugural cycle had also been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Matches were suspended in March 2020 and resumed in July, while several series were postponed or cancelled. New Zealand became the first finalist after the South Africa-Australia series did not go ahead, and India later joined them. The final therefore carried particular significance: it brought a difficult first cycle to a clear sporting conclusion.
2021–2023: Australia ended India’s second final run
Australia won the second WTC final by 209 runs against India at The Oval in London. Played from 7 to 11 June 2023, the match delivered a more decisive result than the rain-affected inaugural final. Australia posted 469 in their first innings and declared at 270 for eight in the second, setting India a demanding target.
India scored 296 in the first innings and 234 in the second, leaving Australia with a substantial victory margin. Pat Cummins led Australia to the title, and Travis Head was named Player of the Final. The win was Australia’s first World Test Championship success and made it the second side to lift the Test Mace through the new competition format.
Australia qualified by winning the third Test of the 2022–23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India returned to the final after Sri Lanka did not win the first Test of its series in New Zealand. For India, the defeat represented a second consecutive WTC final loss, following the result against New Zealand in 2021. It also underlined the challenge of turning league-stage consistency into victory in a single neutral-venue final.
When discussing upcoming fixtures, form and likely match conditions, readers may see prediction content described with phrases such as today match prediction 100 sure. Such material should be treated separately from a completed WTC result, because the championship record is defined only by what happens across the league phase and in the final itself.
2023–2025: South Africa’s five-wicket triumph
South Africa became the third WTC champion by beating Australia by five wickets at Lord’s in London. Australia were dismissed for 212 and 207, while South Africa made 138 in the first innings before completing the chase at 282 for five. The successful target chase gave South Africa its maiden World Test Championship title.
Temba Bavuma captained South Africa in the final, and Aiden Markram was named Player of the Final. Markram’s unbeaten 136 anchored the fourth-innings chase, while his partnership with Bavuma played a major part in completing the task. The margin of five wickets reflected the pressure of a close contest in which South Africa had to recover from a first-innings deficit.
The 2023–2025 cycle started with the first Ashes Test on 16 June 2023. Its final was the first WTC decider held at Lord’s, following Southampton in 2021 and The Oval in 2023. South Africa’s victory also ended a 28-year wait for an ICC trophy, with its previous senior men’s ICC title having been the 1998 KnockOut Trophy.
What the winners list reveals
The three WTC finals have had several common features. Every final has been held in England, though at three different grounds: Southampton, The Oval and Lord’s. Every final has produced a winner within the available playing time, despite the weather disruption in 2021. The winners have also come from three different nations, giving the competition a varied early roll of honour.
India are the only side to have reached more than one WTC final so far, appearing in 2021 and 2023. Australia are the only team to have featured in back-to-back finals, winning in 2023 before finishing runner-up in 2025. New Zealand and South Africa each reached one final and converted that appearance into a title.
The results also illustrate that strong league performance is essential but not sufficient. The final is a standalone Test, played at a designated venue and under its own conditions. A team can lead a long campaign through home and away series, yet still need to adapt quickly to the demands of one match against another elite side.
The next World Test Championship final
The 2025–2027 World Test Championship cycle began with Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka and is scheduled to conclude with a final at The Oval in London in 2027. The format continues to use a points-percentage system, with teams ranked by the percentage of available points they win. The top two sides progress to the final.
Under the points structure used for the 2025–2027 cycle, a win is worth 12 points, a draw earns four and a tie earns six. This percentage-based approach is important because teams do not all play the same number of Tests. It places emphasis on making the most of each scheduled series rather than simply accumulating the largest raw points total.
The WTC winners list remains short, but it already captures three distinct stories: New Zealand’s inaugural triumph, Australia’s emphatic win over India, and South Africa’s successful chase against Australia. With the next final set for 2027, the competition continues to provide Test cricket with a clear route from bilateral series to a single world title match.