Only seven series will remain in the 2023-25 World Test Championship once India-New Zealand and Bangladesh-South Africa are done. Let alone both finalists, not even one of the two slots has been determined for the final at Lord's next year.

Despite the shock defeat against New Zealand, India are at the top of the points table – but by a narrow margin, and their PCT is likely to take a hit across the five Tests in Australia. Second-placed Australia may use that series to displace India at the top, but they have a Sri Lanka tour to contend with.

South Africa are zooming up the table at breakneck pace. Sri Lanka should back themselves at the expense of one of the top two. The wins at Bengaluru and Pune have kept New Zealand in the game. And Pakistan are eyeing everything closely.

Contrast this with the previous two editions. Both 2019-21 and 2021-23 had, at corresponding points, been reduced to three-way races, with at most a fourth team just about still in the reckoning. The competition is far more intense this time.

You know a tournament is a success if, even this late into the league stage, fans of more than half the teams are following Test matches – a format that is supposed to be dying – even if their team is not playing. Their focus is as much on the cricket as it is on the calculators, which makes the current edition of the WTC a resounding success.

This is not to say that the cricket has not been glorious. England came down from 0-2 to square the 2023 Ashes 2-2 (had it not rained at Old Trafford, they might even have won become the first side since 1936-37 to win a series after being two down) to set the tone of the cycle.

Pakistan won in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka in Bangladesh, and for the first time, Bangladesh in Pakistan – all by 2-0 margins – to complete an Asian circle. India returned with a hard-fought 1-1 draw from South Africa in a shootout between fast bowlers on tricky wickets. The West Indies won a Test in Australia for the first time since 2003 and levelled the series.

New Zealand took advantage of South Africa’s depleted squad to beat them in a series for the first time. Sri Lanka won a Test in England after a decade. After being clean-swept by Sri Lanka, New Zealand won their first ever series in India, which also marked the end of the hosts’ 12-year, 18-series streak of wins at home.

If you have not followed the cycle, all you can do is count the number of times the word “first” across the last three paragraphs. That will tell you how often history has been written across the last year and a half.

A resounding success

While domestic competitions around the world have always been multi-team affairs, it took Test cricket a long time to get there.

The 1912 attempt, played entirely in England with three teams, was marred by Australia and South Africa sending depleted sides in an unusually wet summer. The Asian Test Championship began well around the turn of the millennium, but died a quiet death after two editions, the second of which did not feature India.

As the sport expanded and the ODI World Cup became a resounding success, the ICC toyed with the idea of a Test World Cup. The initial idea was to have a quadrennial tournament with the top four teams based on ICC rankings, but nothing came of that.

It finally materialised in the second half of the 2010s. The 2019-21 edition used series at units worth 60 points (the LCM of two, three, four, five – the duration of Test series in th cycle). It was a flawed system, but it played a role in planning and keeping Test cricket going amidst Covid-19. It was a success in its own way.

The rules changed in 2021-23, and a Test match became the new unit. Since wins account for thrice as much as draws, teams did not hesitate to risk defeats while going all out for wins, especially at home. Wickets changed. Strike rates improved, both for bowlers and batters.

India have made it to both finals. After missing out on a berth on over rates in 2019-21, Australia topped the league stage and eventually won in 2021-23. In 2023-25, the two teams are still at the top, but their sustained domination can no longer be taken for granted.

One team displacing them is not merely a mathematical chance anymore: it is a real possibility. A WTC final for at least one new side is not an outlandish scenario either.

The WTC has its faults. Leaving out three of the 12 Full Members demonstrates the inequality that prevails in Test cricket, as does the series of unequal length among the participants.

Despite that, the 2023-25 WTC has managed to breathe life into cricket’s longest format by keeping neutral fans interested even in dead-rubber Test matches. It is up to the rest of the cycle to make this the most remarkable two-year phase in the long history of the format.

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