In a major development on Tuesday (February 2), New Zealand became the first team to qualify for this year’s World Test Championship (WTC) final after Australia’s three-Test series in South Africa was postponed due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the shocking 1-2 defeat against India at home, Australia were needed to win the Test series in South Africa in order to keep their win-loss ratio above New Zealand. At present the Aussies are placed third on the point’s table with a win percentage of 69.2 while India lead on 71.7 followed by New Zealand’s 70 as per the revised scoring system amid the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia released a statement on Tuesday in which they mentioned the tour of South Africa was posing an ‘unacceptable level of health and safety risk’ for their players and support staffs.
Today we informed Cricket South Africa that we believe we have no choice but to postpone the forthcoming Qantas Tour of South Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic. Full statement 👇 pic.twitter.com/mYjqNpkYjp
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) February 2, 2021
“Following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that travelling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community,” the CEO of Cricket Australia Nick Hockley said in a statement.
“We acknowledge the significant amount of work by CSA in planning for the tour, during which we made it clear that CA was prepared to take on additional cost and effort to make the series happen.”
“This decision has not been made lightly and we are extremely disappointed, especially given the importance of continuing international cricket at this time, our valued relationship with CSA, and our aspirations to compete in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.”
The inaugural WTC decider, scheduled for June 18-22 will be played either at Lord’s or Southampton’s Rose Bowl. Under the present circumstances, India are the front-runner to be the opponent of New Zealand in that historic fixture, provided Virat Kohli’s men win their upcoming home series against England, which is starting from February 5.
To book their place, India will have to win the series against England by 2-1, 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 or 4-0, margin. For England to qualify and join New Zealand, they will have to win the series against India by 3-1, 3-0 or 4-0 margin. Australia can still qualify for the much-anticipated ICC WTC final if the series between India and England ends up as a drawn series, or if India win the series 1-0 or England win it by 1-0, 2-1 or a 2-1 margin.
Meanwhile, prior to the WTC Final, New Zealand are scheduled to play a two-Test series against England.