Is India Officially Out of the WTC Finals Race Now?

India is having a hard time in the current World Test Championship cycle. The team suffered a home loss to South Africa, which dropped them to 4th position in the standings. With ten games remaining, has India officially been out of the finals of the tournament now?

1. Current WTC Standings

And even after Sri Lanka, India stood in the points table with just 54.17 winning percentage. This puts the team in a problematic situation, and it should be noted that India has played the most tests till now in this cycle. The team has played a total of 8 tests till now, and the match against South Africa at Guwahati

And after the Test series against South Africa comes to an end, India will have completed half of its total tests this cycle. As of now, even after the first Test, India is having a total of 10 games remaining for them in the World Test Championship cycle. Each game will now be important for the team if they want to enter the finals.

As discussed, India is now having a total of 10 test matches which they will be playing in the remainder of the World Test Championship. Out of these ten games, the team will be having six tests to be played at home and four of them would be played away from home. But every game proves to be vital for the team.

India's Remaining Test Matches:

Every game now holds great significance for the Indian team. Knowing that the team will have to play 6 of their last ten games at home, it comes as a challenge and an opportunity at the same time. India has not been able to do well in the home tests lately, which makes it a challenge.

In these ten games, India has a chance to get 120 points, if they win all of them. This also means that the World Test Championship cycle will be having a denominator of 216 for the Indian team to determine its winning percentage. And the numerator for the same shall be as high as possible for the team.

The mathematics for the Indian team to reach the finals could be a bit challenging. But one should know about the winning percentage at which the second ranked team was able to reach the finals over the last three editions of the tournament. India had reached the finals twice, having the winning percentage of just 58.8 on both occasions.

But the last time, the winning percentage changed to a drastic level for the second-ranked team. Australia reached the finals of the tournament by having 67.54 as their winning percentage. If we consider the baseline as Australia's winning percentage, the Indian team is having a seriously tough time in the current cycle.

For the remaining ten games, if India is able to secure 8 wins, their winning percentage would go to 68.52. This will further help the team to make it easily to the World Test Championship finals of the current cycle. But even if we take a look at the first two cycles, India will be able to make it to the finals by still winning 6-7 of their next ten games.