India Will Open Their World Test Championship Campaign This Week

The International Cricket Council (ICC) took 10 years to plan and launch the World Test Championship format that commenced from August 1. The format has been designed to identify the best test playing nation via a point system that will see the top two teams battle it out at Lord’s, England in June 2021.

India will start their World Test Championship campaign with a two match test series against the West Indies. The first test will run from August 22 to 26 at the North South stadium in Antigua and India go in with the favourites tag after trouncing the West Indies in the T20 and ODI series.

The West Indies were expected to put up a good showing in the shorter format of the game but they have been disappointing, allowing India to win all 5 matches played so far. They have a tough task on their hands as India is playing at full strength and will be hard to beat.

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India rested some of their key players during the T20 and ODI series to try out some of their younger players. Jasprit Bumrah, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma all make a return to the test squad as India will want to complete a 2-0 whitewash and pick up valuable points for the World Test Championship.

The Indian team is currently playing a 3 day warm up game against the West Indian A side to prepare themselves for the first test. India have done reasonably well in the practice match with C Pujara scoring a century and the bowlers sharing the wickets to dismiss West Indies A cheaply.

Head coach Ravi Shastri who was recently given a contract extension in his role as head coach has stated that he would like to play a bigger role in deciding the playing eleven. There are rumours that
Ravichandran Ashwin and captain Virat Kohli no longer see eye to eye. R Ashwin did not play the warm-up game even though he is the main spinner in the side.  

It will be interesting to see the playing eleven selected for the first test given the fact that Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli need to take a call on the bowling line-up and some of the middle-order batsman.