No India-Pakistan series in 2nd edition of World Test Championship as ICC reveals schedule

As the schedule for the second edition of the World test Championships was unveiled, it has been learnt that India will once again not play any series against Pakistan. Three away tours are lined up for India in the next two years, beginning with the England series next month. As per ICC's WTC rules, all nine cricketing nations must play series against six nations of their choice.

India snubs Pakistan to play other teams in WTC

As per the 2021-2023 World Test Championship cycle, the five-match Test series between India and England, starting August 4, will mark the start of the 2021-23 cycle of the World Test Championship.  India will play Sri Lanka instead of West Indies, whom they played in 2017 during the inaugural edition of the competition.

While the August 4 start of the five-Test series against England kicks off India's WTC campaign, they will also tour South Africa between December 2021 to January 2022 and an away series against Bangladesh in November 2022. The biggest series apart from England away Tests will be the marquee four Tests against Australia at home between September and early November next year. India will host New Zealand in November this year for two Test matches and Sri Lanka will be hosted in February-March 2022 after the away tour of South Africa.

Standardized points structure for World Test Championship

The ICC, on July 14, also officially confirmed the points structure for the second edition of the World Test Championship. During the second cycle, 12 points will be awarded for a win, four for a draw and six for a tie. The ICC further indicated that the percentage of points won will be used to determine the standings.

Earlier there was a major concern of inequality in the table as each Test series carried a value of 120 points. As a result, a team winning a Test in a two-match series got 60 points compared to five-game series where a Test win is valued at 24 points.

PTI reported that the ICC modified the points structure for the second WTC cycle after taking learnings from the disruptions last year. ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement, "We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardized points system for each match."