WTC 2021-2023: India to host Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia; tour England, South Africa, Bangladesh

India will as soon as once more not play Pakistan within the second cycle of World Test Championship with three away excursions lined up within the subsequent two years, beginning with the England collection subsequent month.
As per rule, every of the 9 nations within the World Test Championship calendar play in opposition to six nations of their alternative and within the 2021-2023 cycle, India will play Sri Lanka as a substitute of West Indies, whom they performed in 2017 through the inaugural version.
While the August 4 begin of the five-Test collection in opposition to England kicks off India’s WTC marketing campaign, they may even tour South Africa between December 2021 to January 2022 and an away collection in opposition to Bangladesh in November 2022.
The largest collection other than England away Tests would be the marquee 4 Tests in opposition to Australia at house between September and early November subsequent yr.
India will host New Zealand in November this yr for 2 Test matches and Sri Lanka will likely be hosted in February-March 2022 after the away tour of South Africa.

The ICC on Wednesday additionally formally confirmed that groups will likely be awarded standardised 12 factors for a win, 4 for a draw and 6 for a tie through the second cycle.
The ICC additional mentioned that proportion of factors received will likely be used to find out the standings.
Earlier, every Test collection carried a price of 120 factors which led to sure inequality within the desk as a crew profitable a Test in a two-match collection bought 60 factors in comparison with five-game collection the place a Test win is valued at 24 factors.
PTI had final month reported that ICC was set to introduce the brand new standardised factors system for the second WTC cycle.
ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice mentioned the adjustments have been made to simplify the factors system whereas taking learnings from the disruption final yr.
“We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardized points system for each match,” Allardice mentioned in an announcement.
“During the pandemic we needed to change to rating groups on the factors desk utilizing the share of obtainable factors received by every crew, since all collection couldn’t be accomplished.
“This helped us determine the finalists and we were able to complete the championship within the scheduled time frame. This method also allowed us to compare the relative performance of teams at any time, regardless of how many matches they had played.”
Apart from the India-England collection, the Ashes later this yr would be the solely different five-match affair within the second cycle which can finish in June 2023.
Australia’s tour of India subsequent yr is the one four-Test collection within the upcoming cycle.
India captain Virat Kohli mentioned after dropping the inaugural WTC closing to New Zealand, he expects his aspect to regroup with “new energy” within the new cycle.
“It was great to have played the final of the ICC World Test Championship against New Zealand in what was a memorable contest. Not just the final, we saw the determination of players throughout the first edition of the championship,” Kohli mentioned.
“The following of cricket lovers too was great to see, and I am sure they will all be waiting eagerly for the second edition. We will regroup with new energy for the next cycle starting with our series against England.”
Reigning champion New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson mentioned WTC has revived folks’s curiosity within the conventional format of the sport.
“The WTC has certainly added more context and brought new meaning to Test cricket and it was awesome to see the interest that was generated around the Final against India,” he mentioned.
“We know trying to defend the title will be a huge challenge, but our focus will be on making sure we prepare as well as we can for the tours ahead and trying to maintain our level of performance.”
England captain Joe Root describes the upcoming five-Test duel in opposition to India as an “interesting challenge”.
“We start our campaign in the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship against the finalists of last time, which is an interesting challenge straight away,” he mentioned.

“India are a fine all-round side and it would be good to test them in our home conditions. We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final last time and are looking to do better this time.”