World Test Championship 2021-23 final to take place in June at The Oval

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday, February 8, announced the dates and venue for the 2021-23 World Test Championship (WTC) final.

In a press release, the global body mentioned that the second edition of the World Test Championship final will be played from June 7 to 11 at The Kia Oval in London, United Kingdom.

Just like in the previous WTC final in Southampton, the ICC kept June 12 as the reserve day to force a result in case unforeseen weather conditions occur in between.

The ICC statement read:

"The final of the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship will be played at The Oval, London from 7 to 11 June with a reserve day in place (12 June)."

The announcement came on the eve of the four-match Test series between rivals India and Australia with the first Test scheduled at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur.

Which teams can qualify for the World Test Championship final 2021-23?

The engrossing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 is likely to determine the two finalists for the 2021-23 WTC final.

Australia are the current leaders of the nine-team championship with 10 wins, one loss and four draws to accumulate a 75.56% win ratio. India are placed second with 58.93% with eight wins, four defeats, and a couple of draws.

South Africa and Sri Lanka are the other two contenders with slender hopes of qualifying for the WTC final.

India will have to beat Australia by either 4-0, 3-0, or 3-1 margin in the upcoming Test series, or else their fate will rely upon the results of the New Zealand- Sri Lanka Test series (two matches) in New Zealand and South Africa- West Indies Test series (two matches) in South Africa.

New Zealand emerged as the champions of the inaugural World Test Championship (2019-21) after their eight-wicket win over Virat Kohli & CO. in Southampton in June 2021.