World Test Championship final postponed, to be held from June 18-22 at Lord's

The final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) will now be held on June 18. The tie was originally scheduled to begin on June 10 at the Mecca of Cricket, Lord's. 

According to a report in ANI, the decision to postpone the event was made keeping in mind the close proximity between the IPL 2021 final and WTC final. The date of the final of the 2021 edition of the IPL is yet to be decided but is usually held during the last week of May. It could have also complicated the quarantine scheme for the players of the two participating teams.

After retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India leapfrogged Australia to claim the pole position in the WTC rankings. New Zealand stand second in the table with a points percentage of 70. The Virat Kohli-led side now needs to win the upcoming four-match Test series against England with a margin of two matches (4-0, 3-1, 3-0 or 2-0) to book a spot in the final of the World Test Championship. 

Speaking to PTI, A BCCI source confirmed the report. “The WTC Final will now be played from June 18-22 and June 23 will be the reserve day. As background we pushed it back to allow for any quarantine that may be imposed, particularly given the close proximity to the end of the IPL and the original dates.e,” a BCCI source told PTI. 

[ANI and PTI input]