The novel coronavirus has disrupted the 4 months of the cricket calendar. We saw all the matches getting postponed during the period of March to September. A total 5 test series were cancelled or postponed during this period.

The series postponed are:

  1. Sri Lanka vs England ( March 13-31, 2020)
  2. Pakistan Vs Bangladesh (April 5-9, 2020)
  3. Bangladesh vs Australia (June  11-15, 2020)
  4. Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh (July-August, 2020)
  5. Bangladesh Vs New Zealand (Aug-Sept, 2020)

ICC hasn’t given equal points to the teams whose fixtures were called-off. These matches are yet to be rescheduled. Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s general manager cricket operations has said that the World Test Championship (WTC) is proceeding as planned. The final is scheduled in June,2021 at Lords. The finals could be pushed even further depending upon the rescheduled series. If these postponed series are rescheduled before June 2021 then the final is likely to occur on time.

“In the last few months, we’ve learned that things change quite quickly. One week you think that you’re not going to play for a while and then things begin to open up at a government level and then all of a sudden, things look possible,” Allardice said.

 He also added, “A lot of the series we are talking about, if we are saying November-December, January-February, they are six to eight months away and it’s still hard to predict where things will be in some countries that far out. We haven’t got a firm drop-dead date in mind. We are going to get a feel in the next month or two from member countries about when they’ll be able to resume and what their upcoming seasons look like, including the matches and series they need to reschedule that have been postponed,” he added.

This July, England had already started their cricket by hosting West Indies and Pakistan. England defeated Windies 2-1 thus registering 80 points and jumping to 3rd position. Pakistan will hope to get some points to make the test Championship more interesting.

Table-toppers India will be hoping to maintain their position on top by playing well in the competitive series against Australia in their own backyard later this year.

ICC TEST CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS TABLE

PositionTeamPlayedWonLostDrawnTiedPoints
1India97200360
2Australia107210296
3England127410226
4New Zealand73400180
5Pakistan52210140
6Sri Lanka4121080
7West Indies5140040
8South Africa7160024
9Bangladesh303000

*top 2 teams will qualify for the finals in June 2021 (tentative) at Lords