How India can reach WTC Final: Win at SCG and hope for Sri Lankan series victory or draw against Australia

India's World Test Championship hopes hinge on winning against Australia and Sri Lanka's performance against Australia.

India may have lost the crucial Boxing Day contest by 184 runs but all is not lost as far as their chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final are concerned.

To qualify for the final, India must win the last Test of the series against Australia at Sydney, and then hope for a positive result for Sri Lanka (or a 0-0 draw) when Australia tour the island nation early next year.

Post the loss, India's point percentage (PCT) has dropped to 52.78 from 55.89. Australia, on the other hand boosted their PCT as they now have 61.46.

South Africa have already qualified for the WTC final after beating Pakistan in the first Test by two wickets on Sunday.

If India manage to win in Sydney, they will have 55.26 PCT and Australia will have 54.26. A win out of two Tests against Sri Lanka then would be enough for Australia to go past India's PCT and join the Proteas in the final.

India began the 2024/25 season in a rampant fashion, securing a confident 2-0 win over Bangladesh at home.

The script that followed was, however, not according to their plans. The side suffered an unprecedented historic loss to New Zealand at home, before embarking on a challenging tour of Australia.