What happens if the World Test Championship final ends in a draw or tie?

After a gruelling cycle of two years, the World Test Championship has finally found its top-two contenders in India and New Zealand. Having been commenced with the opening Test of Ashes 2019, nine teams – Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies, fought in over 25 series combined with India finishing at the top spot, with 520 points in 6 series that included 12 Test wins, 4 losses, and a solitary draw.

Their rivals at Southampton, where the titular clash will be held, New Zealand, finished with 420 points from 5 series, where they registered 7 Test wins and 4 losses. Introduced by the ICC with the aim to contextualize Test cricket, which was increasingly losing its shimmer amongst the many competitive short-format tournaments, the inaugural edition of the WTC was jolted by the ravages of the pandemic, with the scheduling being changed multiple times and series getting either cancelled or postponed.

Forced changes on the way

However, the initial impression, despite the many unexpected setbacks it received on the way, is noteworthy, and it does seem that the vision and mission behind the idea have been fulfilled to a great degree. Given this is merely a start of what will now be an ongoing concept – the new WTC cycle will start as soon as the first one ends – one can expect it to reap more success in the times to come.

The pandemic not only altered the schedule of the fixtures but even how the points are allocated. While the initial system was based on points distributed evenly over the number of Tests in the series (each series had 120 points, which was divided by the number of Tests the series comprised of to reach the number of points for each win) was amended by the ICC after the realization that it is no longer in a situation to complete the cycle as per the schedule thanks to the pandemic.

While there was a regulation in place that suggested that any match that was not completed will be counted as a draw with points split, that was superseded to determine the finalists based on the matches that could be completed. And that is when the new methodology for calculation – percentage points – was introduced as the current finalists have been decided on the basis of the percentage of points, which they have earned from the Tests they have contested for.

What if the World Test Championship final ends in a draw or tie?

While all that saga is now a thing of the past, the biggest query remains on what if India against New Zealand affair at Southampton results in a draw or tie. The ICC has not announced any tie-breaker formula, for the inaugural cycle at least, which means that the two teams will be held joint champions.

Although an announcement for a reserve day has been made, which is supposed to come into play should net playing time be lost due to any reason whatsoever. Net playing time for every Test amount to 30 hours of play i.e., six hours a day.

That said, the reserve day cannot be used to procure a result or outcome but only to compensate for the lost time or overs. It has been clarified that if some overs are lost because of weather or bad light during the regular five days, only that many overs will be played on the reserve day and not an entire day will be used to get to an outcome.