Problems at home behind India's failure to make final

All teams qualifying for the WTC final maximise the home advantage, something India failed to do in the current cycle

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI: When India had kicked off their World Test Championship (WTC) campaign in the middle of 2023, Yashasvi Jaiswal was on debut, Ajinkya Rahane was still making the playing eleven and Rahul Dravid was the head coach. So long-drawn is the WTC that some teams have undergone sweeping upheavals towards the back end.

India's final hopes have dashed with the loss in last week's Sydney Test match. Jaiswal is the next big thing, Rahane's comeback hopes have dimmed, the in-your-face Gautam Gambhir has replaced Dravid as coach, Jasprit Bumrah returned from injury, dazzled and has gone back to the rehab table.

What remains unchanged despite this churn is the breeziest formula to win the ticket to the finals - win handsomely at home. The points system is fashioned for a team to deliver clean sweeps at home and make the finals. Twelve points are awarded for a win and only four for a draw with the much documented percentage system used to limit the imbalance from the unequal distribution of Tests.

When New Zealand made the finals of the inaugural (2019-21) edition, they did it with a 100% home record. They went on to lift the mace. A blip or two is fine, something both this year's finalists South Africa and Australia have faced. But with 83.3% and 70% wins at home respectively, their road to finals was still formalised by maximising home advantage.

The only time a team made the final with a less flattering home record was India in 2021-23 - 62.5% wins - but that's because they were able to offset the record with five away wins, two of them in England and one in South Africa. Virat Kohli made the 'make them smell hell for 60 overs' speech in the Lord's Test of 2021 and the bowlers responded.