Everything you need to know about the ICC World Test Championship Final
The two leading teams in the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle - Australia and India - are set to clash in a winner-takes-all showdown at The Oval from June 7.
India are returning to the World Test Championship Final after losing the inaugural decider to New Zealand in 2021, while Australia will play in their maiden WTC Final after topping the standings in the current cycle.
The winner will be awarded with the ICC World Test Championship mace as well as a significant portion of the whopping WTC prize pot.
If the WTC Final is drawn, tied or abandoned, Australia and India will be declared joint World Test Championship winners.
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The World Test Championship Final will be held from June 7 to June 11.
A reserve day is in place for the WTC Final on June 12 and can be used to make up for any loss of playing time during the five scheduled days, not to keep playing until one side wins.
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**Australia:**Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
Reserves: Mitch Marsh, Matt Renshaw
Note: Australia named Josh Hazlewood in their original 15-player squad but replaced the pacer with Michael Neser following approval from the Event Technical Committee.
**India:**Rohit Sharma (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, KS Bharat, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadakt, Umesh Yadav.
Reserves: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav
Follow the live scores in the World Test Championship Final in the ICC Match Centre.
The Star Sports network will showcase the English World Feed in India, and provide regional coverage in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. Their digital platform Disney+ Hotstar will also show live coverage of each day’s play.
The WTC Final will be shown live in Australiaon Channel 7 and its digital platform 7Plus.
Sky Sports will present the live coverage in the UK on their Sky Sports Cricket channel, as well as the Sky Go app and NOW.
Supersport will cover the match in full across their linear network in Sub-Saharan Africa with digital coverage via the DSTV app.
The match will be telecasted via Sky Sports in New Zealand,****as well as through their linear channels and the Sky Go app.
Cricket fans in the USAand Canadawill be able to enjoy the action via Willow TV on both linear and digital platforms.
Fans in the UAEcan access the match on CricLife on Etisalat and Starzplay, while people from the Caribbeanwill be able to watch the Test on Sportsmax.
Other broadcasters include ATN in Afghanistan, Gazi TV in Bangladeshand Maharaja TV in Sri Lanka.
In other markets, broadcast coverage can be accessed on ICC’s in-house digital platform ICC.tv, ensuring live coverage of The Ultimate Test is genuinely global.
The World Test Championship Final 2023 will be held at The Oval in London, the UK.
The Oval is one of the most iconic cricket venues in the world and was the first ground to host Test cricket in England. It is also the birthplace of the Ashes, after England lost to Australia at the venue and the Sporting Times published an Obituary of English cricket.
The venue also hosted the first-ever FA Cup final, the first international football match in England in 1870, and the first-ever rugby union international.
A winner-takes-all Test played on neutral ground for both Australia and India adds to the intrigue especially after the two teams met in very different conditions on the sub-continent for four Tests earlier this year.
The inaugural WTC Final was played at the Rose Bowl in Southampton in 2021 where New Zealand defeated India by eight wickets.
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ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final from 7 to 11 June at The Oval.
The winners of the ICC World Test Championship Final 2023 will take home a purse of USD $1.6 million.
The WTC runners-up will receive USD $800,000 in prize money.
The nine teams that have participated in the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 will share a total purse of USD $3.8 million.
The World Test Championship tournament prize money for the current cycle is the same as it was for the inaugural edition in 2019-21.
Chris Gaffaney of New Zealand and Richard Illingworth of England have been named as the on-field umpires for the World Test Championship Final.
Richard Kettleborough of England will be the TV umpire, while Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka will be the fourth umpire.
Richie Richardson of the West Indies will be the match referee.
The ICC World Test Championship is a two-year tournament with nine teams competing for two spots in the WTC Final. Teams are ranked on percentage of WTC points won in eligible Test matches.
Australia finished on top of the standings in the WTC 2021-23 cycle with 66.67% of their possible points after gathering 152 points from 19 Tests. This included 11 victories and five draws, as Australia won four of their six series played in the WTC cycle.
The only series Australia lost in the WTC cycle was the last they played when they faced India on the sub-continent and slumped to a 2-1 defeat.
India were next best in the WTC cycle with 58.8% of their possible points when collecting 127 points in 18 Tests, securing a top-two spot after beating Australia in the four-Test series on home soil and having other results go their way. They also took out four of the six series played in the WTC cycle and finished with 10 wins and three draws.
As well as the pair of WTC 2023 finalists, the other teams competing in the World Test Championship were Bangladesh, England, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and the inaugural champions New Zealand.
The teams do not necessarily play the same number of matches in the WTC cycle, but each team played six WTC series - three at home and three away.
Each Test included in the tournament has 12 points available for a win, with four awarded to each team for a draw, and six to each team for a tie. No points are earned from a loss, and teams can lose points for slow over rates.