Hat-tricks are tough, and the India cricket team is about to find out why. Currently, they are looking to do a three-peat. That is trying to win a third Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Australia and making the World Test Championship (WTC) Final in the third consecutive cycle.
The issue is that Team India can’t reach the WTC 2025 Final without doing well in the BGT 2024-25. That’s because they got whitewashed at home for the first time in their history earlier in the month at the hands of New Zealand. This has seen Rohit Sharma’s team slip one spot, from one to two on the WTC points table.
India’s WTC Final Qualification scenarios based on BGT 2024-25 result
Statistically, there are nine ways through which Team India can qualify for the WTC Final; all of these scenarios hinge upon how well they do in BGT 2024-25. It’s rather complicated, but let’s take you through it.
| If Result is | Qualification scenario |
|---|---|
| 4-0/5-0 | India qualifies irrespective of others’ results |
| 3-0/3-1/4-1 | England must draw one Test match against New Zealand |
| 2-0 | England must win one Test against New Zealand |
| 3-2 | England must win one Test against New Zealand, and Sri Lanka must draw one Test against Australia |
| 1-0/1-1/2-1 | New Zealand should win just one Test against England, and Sri Lanka must draw one Test against Australia |
| 2-2 | New Zealand should win just one Test against England, and Sri Lanka must beat Australia |
| 2-3 | New Zealand should win just one Test against England, Sri Lanka and South Africa can’t win more than 2 of their 4 Tests |
| 0-0/0-1/1-2/1-3 | England must beat New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka must win 2-0 over South Africa and Australia, and South Africa vs Sri Lanka should end 1-1 |
| 0-2/0-3/1-4 | England must win 2-0/3-0 over New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka must win 2-0 over South Africa and Australia, and South Africa vs Sri Lanka should end 1-1 |
| 0-4/0-5 | India is disqualified |
One thing is sure: by January 7, we’ll know where Team India stands.
