India’s qualification chances for WTC Final: How can Rohit Sharma’s men enter summit clash for 3rd consecutive time?

Kanpur: Yashasvi Jaiswal starred in the second innings with the bat as he led India’s chase with a fifty against Bangladesh in the second Test on Tuesday at the Green Park Stadium. Chasing 95 runs to win with two sessions to go, India took 17.2 overs to romp home with Jaiswal top-scoring with 51. With this win, India took the series 2-0, having won the first game by a mammoth 280 runs.

The win also proved significant for India as they consolidated their top position in the World Test Championship (WTC) points table. Before this win, India needed four wins from their remaining Test matches to make it to the final for the third consecutive time. Earlier, India played in both WTC finals in 2021 and 2023, but lost on both occasions.

With the victory in Kanpur, India are just three wins away from the summit clash. Also they now have a point percentage of 74.24 ahead of Australia (62.50%) and Sri Lanka (55.56%) who are in second and third places respectively.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh, who were placed fifth before the second Test, have slipped to seventh after this loss. England, South Africa and New Zealand are fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. India will next play New Zealand in three Test matches at home before flying to Australia for the five-match series.

India have not lost a match to Bangladesh in Test cricket and the fact that they won this contest in a mere six sessions after losing two full days to rain, speaks volumes of the gulf between the two teams. Sri Lanka need to win the series against Australia (home) and South Africa (away) to qualify for the final. in case Australia win the series against Sri Lanka, then the former team go through the summit clash.