Problems at home behind India's failure to make final

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

- Sanjay Manjrekar

BAI: When India had 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 is the WTC that some teams have undergone sweeping changes towards the back end. India's final hopes have ended with the loss in last year's Sydney Test match. Jaiswal is the next big thing, but Rahane's comeback hopes have ended, the in-your-face Gautam Gambhir has replaced Dravid as coach, Jasprit Bumrah returned from injury, dazzled and has gone back to the rehab.

What remains unchanged despite this churn is the breezy 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) WTC, they did it with a 100% win record. They went on to win the mace. A blip or two is 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 normalized by maximizing the 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 because they were able to boost the record with five away wins, two of them in England and one in South Africa. Virat Kohli made the 'make them play hell for 60 overs' speech in Lord's Test of 2021 and the bowlers responded.