India will not play the World Test Championship (WTC) Final for the third time in a row after losing the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Desperately needing a win to keep slim hopes alive, Australia won by 6-wickets in Sydney to shatter those chances. Instead, the Pat Cummins-led side confirmed their place in the final for a second-time in a row.
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The reigning champions Australia will face South Africa in the WTC Final from 11-15 June, 2025 at Lord’s. It will be the first time that Lord’s will be used for the WTC Final, with Southampton the venue for the first edition (2021) and The Oval the venue for the second edition (2023), which were won by New Zealand and Australia, respectively.
At the resumption of the fifth Test, Australia were second in the standings on 61.46 percentage points while India were third on 52.78. The win maintained Australia in the second place, on 63.73 rating points. Meanwhile, India, too, remained third but conceded points, dropping to 50.00.
LATEST WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS TABLE
| No. | Teams | M | W | L | T | D | N/R | PT | PCT |
| 1 | South Africa | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 88 | 66.67 |
| 2 | Australia | 17 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 130 | 63.73 |
| 3 | India | 19 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 114 | 50.00 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 48.21 |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 11 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 45.45 |
| 6 | England | 22 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 114 | 43.18 |
| 7 | Bangladesh | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 31.25 |
| 8 | Pakistan | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 30.30 |
| 9 | West Indies | 11 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 24.24 |
It has been a massive free-fall for the Indian cricket team since mid-October. As they prepared to host New Zealand, India had their fate firmly in their grasp. A whitewash and they would qualify for the WTC Final even before setting foot in Australia. However, India were blanked 0-3 with Ajaz Patel (15 wickets) and Mitchell Santner (13 wickets) proving decisive for the visitors.
During this tour of Australia, India started confidently, winning the opening Test in Perth by 295 runs. But have struggled to put runs on board in the subsequent four Tests to lose the series 3-1.
Australia won the pink-ball Test by 10-wickets, the fourth Test at MCG by 184 runs and finally the SCG Test by 6-wickets with the Test at Gabba drawn due to consistent rain.
