India’s campaign in the 2023-25 edition of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) ended on Sunday, January 5, after the Jasprit Bumrah-led side suffered a defeat by 6 wickets against Australia in the fifth and final Test of the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India needed nothing less than a win in Sydney to keep its chances alive of qualifying for the third WTC final in a row, but after suffering its sixth defeat in the last eight Test matches, it got all over.
India played 19 Test matches in the third edition of WTC, and a total of 28 players took the field for the Rohit Sharma-led side. India won the two-match Test series against the West Indies with a scoreline of 1-0 in July 2023 and played a 1-1 draw against South Africa (December 2023-January 2024) in the first two overseas assignments of WTC 2023-25. India boosted its chances of qualifying for the third WTC final in a row by hammering England 4-1 and Bangladesh 2-0 in the two home series played last year, but things turned upside down after New Zealand whitewashed India in a three-match Test series at home in October-November 2024, and then, despite winning the first Test against Australia in Perth, India went on to lose the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a scoreline of 1-3.Even if Australia loses the next two matches against Sri Lanka and also faces an 8-point penalty, then too, India can’t qualify for the WTC 2025 final, which is scheduled to take place at Lord’s from June 11-15.
In the 2023-25 WTC, Jasprit Bumrah and Yashasvi Jaiswal topped the bowlers and batters’ charts for India, but apart from the duo, others failed to impress on the majority of occasions. Captain Rohit Sharma impressed with his batting and leadership in the away series against the West Indies and the home series against England, both of which India won, but he was horribly out of form in the last three series, and as a result he “opted” himself out of the fifth Test against Australia, which ended on Sunday.
