The third Test between Australia and South Africa ended in a draw on Sunday (January 8) and with this the hosts won the three-match home series 2-0. Australia required 14 wickets for victory on Day 5, but South Africa managed to pull off a draw to save them from an imminent 3-0 whitewash. Proteas ended Day 5 at 106/2 in their second innings as Australia had earlier declared their first innings for 475/4 before wrapping up South Africa for paltry 255 in the first innings and then enforced the follow-on on the visitors.
Riding on an emphatic series win, Australia are rigid on top of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-2023 points table with a win percentage of 75.56. Meanwhile, with 99 points from eight victories, Team India are hot on Australia's heels. Going by the statistics and permutation and combinations so far, it looks like India have every chance to make it to the WTC summit clash. However, Team India and Australia will lock horns with each other in the four-match Test series which will start from February 9, which will give more clarity about the final scenario.
As far as other teams are concerned, Sri Lanka are sitting at the third position with a win percentage of 53.33 and they also remain alive in the WTC final rat race, provided they win the upcoming two-match Test series against New Zealand. Meanwhile, South Africa are floating on fourth spot in the final race.
If Rohit Sharma's men manage to extract a 3-1 series victory against Australia, they will storm into the WTC final irrespective of the results in the other matches. In that case, India will have a points percentage of either 62.5 (3-1) or 68.06 (4-0).
But, if the series ends at 2-2, India’s points percentage will be 56.94 and that’s where Sri Lanka will ply their chances for the final. Sri Lanka also have a chance to go past India if they manage to trounce Kiwis 2-0 in the overseas Tests.
There could also be a scenario where South Africa can go past India. For that the Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia has to end in a 1-1 draw. So, for India to stay ahead of Proteas, they need to win the series by a margin of 1-0 or tie at 2-2.
But South Africa will have a task cut out as they first need to win the Test series against West Indies to remain in the contention of final.
