India move to the top of the World Test Championship after historic win at the Gabba

The Indian team created history as they clinched the Border-Gavaskar series by winning the fourth Test match at the Gabba by three wickets and thereby ending Australia’s unbeaten run at the venue for the last 33 years on Tuesday.

The visitors had a difficult task of chasing down 328 runs in the second innings but they were right up for the challenge.

After the emphatic win at the Gabba, the Indian team have moved to the top of the World Test Championship points table. It was recently decided that the top two teams of the points table will be decided on the basis of percentage of points earned to the total points available as all the teams will not be able to play all their matches due to Covid-19.

India now has a PCT (percentage of points) of 71.7% as they have 430 points under their belt. New Zealand, the World No. 1 team, has a PCT of 70% whereas Australia have a PCT of 69.2%. Thus, the Indian team will have a good chance of qualifying for the final of the WTC if they manage to defeat England by 2-0 or better margin in the upcoming four-match series.

Rank Team PCT Points Series Played Matches Played Matches Won Matches Lost Matches Drawn
1 India 71.7% 430 5 13 9 3 1
2 New Zealand 70.0% 420 5 11 7 4 0
3 Australia 69.2% 332 4 14 8 4 2
4 England 65.2% 352 5* 16 9 4 3
5 South Africa 40.0% 144 3 9 3 6 0
6 Pakistan 30.7% 166 4.5 10 2 5 3
7 Sri Lanka 19.0% 80 4* 7 1 5 1
8 West Indies 11.1% 40 3 7 1 6 0
9 Bangladesh 00.0% 0 1.5 3 0 3 0

ICC World Test Championship table. Credits: ICC

Meanwhile, this was an emphatic series win for the Indian team as they came up with a collective effort. Not many cricket pundits had put the weight behind this team when they were bundled out for 36 runs at Adelaide. Furthermore, they were without the services of Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami.

The Indian team will be proud with the performances of young players like Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant and T Natarajan who all impressed with their skills. The team came out as winners against all the odds and they were brilliant in all the three departments of the game.

India will now host England in a four-match Test series.