Australia’s tour to South Africa has been postponed, Australia had a chance to qualify for the summit clash had their tour of South Africa gone ahead. However, now Australia’s chances stand slim given India’s impeccable record at home, where they will host England for a four-Test series starting from February 5. Australia now have to hope and pray for a few results to go their way whereas New Zealand have now officially qualified for the WTC final all set to take place at Lord’s. Today we shall be taking a look at what needs to happen in order for Australia to reach the WTC finals.

 

As mentioned earlier, the team now has to rely on fierce rivals England if they want to sneak into the finals. Australia will be knocked out if India wins two Tests and draws one of the remaining games at home. It means the Aussies need England to win in India, without winning the series by more than 2-0 to qualify for the final. Ironically, Australia would have already qualified for the final if not for the points penalty they incurred due to a slow over-rate in Melbourne. It seems like David Boon’s decision to slap Australia with a four-point penalty will ultimately be the reason behind their absence from the World Test Championship final. Given the busy calendar, the tour is highly unlikely to get rescheduled within the current cycle of WTC which effectively puts their fate in the hands of India and England series. All the Aussie players as well as their fans would be keeping a close watch on this upcoming series.

 

Both India and England will target Australia’s points percentage – whichever teams tops 69.17 will qualify. India need 70 points from the four-Test series to go past Australia. That means they need to win by at least a 2-1 margin – that will fetch them 30 points for each of the two wins, and 10 points for one draw; 3-0 or 3-1 or 4-0, of course, work even better. Either of India or winning 3 matches in the upcoming series means Australia get knocked out of the race. The only way Australia can qualify for the finals if India wins the series is if the Men in Blue win the series by a margin of 1-0.

By Arvind Krishnan

Cricket writer, statistician and analyst. An unorthodox media student, marketing runs in his blood. Sports Marketer and analyst.

2 thoughts on “How Australia can still qualify for the WTC Final?”
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