The Indian team enhanced their chances of qualifying for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC 2025-27) final after defeating Sri Lanka in the first of the two-Test series that was played in Galle. India defeated Sri Lanka by 165 runs in Galle and strengthened its position at no. 5 on the WTC points table.
India still has one Test left in the Sri Lanka series, and they will then visit New Zealand for a full all-format series later this year, where they will play two more Tests. India’s WTC 2025-27 Test cycle will come to an end with a five-Test series at home against Australia. However, there are very valid reasons why India might not make it into the final of the WTC this cycle, and we take a look at all of them.
Here are the 5 reasons why India might not make it to the WTC 2025-27 final:
5. Poor start to WTC 2025-27 cycle
One of the Indian team’s primary reasons is that they had a poor start to their WTC 2025-27 cycle. The damage done in the first half has come back to bite them, with five wins and five losses from 10 Tests and a point percentage of 53.33%. India famously lost to South Africa at home, which hurt their chances, and drew with England. They did whitewash the West Indies at home and, to keep their hopes alive, need to whitewash Sri Lanka as well.
4. Already dropped too many points
Thanks to losing four Tests and winning only four thus far, India has dropped far too many points. India has ‘little’ to gain even if they register a 2-0 series sweep in Sri Lanka. Even if India wins the series, the percentage points only jump to 57.58%. India needed to win big at home against South Africa, and two big losses to them have hurt India more than anything else.
3. Need to win all remaining tests
The Indian team had qualified for the final of the first two World Test Championships in 2021 and 2023 and barely missed out on the 2025 final as well. Now, to make it into the final of the WTC 2025-27 cycle, India needs to win all of their remaining 8 Tests, and that too with a good margin, to get ahead of the top four teams to finish up at no. one or two in the WTC points table. It is a tough task given that India faces New Zealand and Australia next in an away and a home series, respectively.
2. Tough challenges ahead from New Zealand and Australia
India will play two Tests in New Zealand and then host Australia for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series at home. The results of these two Test series will determine whether India will play in the final of the WTC 2025-27 or not. India has not won a Test series in New Zealand since 2009-10 and lost 0-2 when they visited the Kiwis in 2020-21. Against Australia at home, India was deadly in 2024, winning the series 4-1. But their recent performances at home in Tests have not been the best, given that they were whitewashed by New Zealand and South Africa.
1. Strong competition from Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand
Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Bangladesh occupy the top four spots in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC 2025-27) table, respectively. India is placed fifth and will face two teams in their upcoming Test series who are in the top three. Bangladesh made the equation tougher for India by defeating Australia in the first Test of the two-match series.
The other four teams have very easy equations to qualify for the final of WTC 2025-27. Australia needs 8 wins from 13 Tests; South Africa needs 6 wins! With 10 tests, New Zealand will qualify for the final if they win 7 matches out of their remaining 10 games. Thus, India has more to lose than the other teams and hence has strong competition from them.
