2019-2021 ICC World Test Championship: India's complete schedule

With the four-match Test series between India and Australia coming to an end, this could be the final Test assignment India will play before the 2019 World Cup as the scheduled one-off Test against Zimbabwe is in a jeopardy, thanks to cramped schedule.

If the SCG Test is the last match India are playing before the World Cup, their next Test match will be for the World Test Championship.

India are among the nine teams who will be taking part in the tournament that gets underway in July 2019 and goes all the way till June 2021.

Each team in the tournament will play a Test series (irrespective of the number of matches) against six of the other eight teams. Each series should have at least two and a maximum of five matches. Out of the six series, three will be played at home and three will be played away from home.

Although all the nine teams may not play the same number of matches in the tournament, they will playing the same number of series and will have a maximum of 720 points to play for. It has to be noted that the International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced that arch-rivals India and Pakistan will not play against each other in the first two editions of the tournament.

The points will be calculated in the following manner:

The points for a win differ according to the matches while the teams will get 30% of the points if the match ends in a draw and will share the points if the match is tied.

In a five-match Test series, the team winning a match will get 24 points while the losing team will go home empty-handed. In case of a draw, the teams will be given eight points each.

In a four-match Test series, the team winning a match will get 30 points while the teams will get 10 points if the match ends in a draw.

In a three-match Test series, 40 points will be awarded to the team that wins the match. If the match ends in a draw, teams will receive 13.3 points each.

In a two-match Test series, each Test win is worth 60 points. 20 points will be awarded to the team if the match ends in a stalemate.

2019:

Cheteshwar Pujara

West Indies (away)

India's first assignment in the World Test Championship will be the tour of West Indies just after the World Cup. This will be India's first away series in the tournament and they will play the Windies in two Test matches apart from three ODIs and three T20Is.

South Africa (home)

India have made an excellent decision to play South Africa at home as it is one country where India have always struggled. India will host South Africa in three Test matches later this year in the World Test Championship. This will also be India's first assignment in the tournament.

The Proteas will be touring India just for the three-match Test series and will come back in February 2020 for the limited-overs leg.

Bangladesh (home)

India's final World Test Championship assignment of 2019 will be against Bangladesh and again, India will be hosting their neighbours in two Test matches which will be followed by three T20Is in November.

2020:

Ishant Sharma

2020 will be a very challenging year for the Indian team as they will be playing a total of six matches across two tours. Both the tours will be taking place in challenging conditions for the Men in Blue.

New Zealand (away)

India's World Test Championship campaign in 2020 will get underway with a tour of New Zealand where the Indians will take on the Kiwis in two Test matches on the tour that also has three ODIs and as many as five T20Is.

This will be the last Test series Virat Kohli and co. will play before getting a huge break next year.

Australia (away) - Dec-Jan

India are currently playing Australia Down Under and in another 18 months, they will travel to Australia again for yet another four-match Test series, this time for both Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the ICC World Test Championship.

As usual, the series is expected to get underway in December and go on till January. India will also play three ODIs on the tour.

2021:

Rishabh Pant

Australia (away)

In all likelihood, India will kickstart their 2021 with the New Year's Test at the SCG in Sydney as a part of the four-match Test series between India and Australia for the World Test Championship. India will also play three ODIs on the tour.

With this assignment, India's away tournaments in the World Test Championship will come to an end.

England (home)

Following the tour of Australia, India will have their final World Test Championship assignment at home as they will be hosting England in a five-match Test series in February and March.

This is also a great decision because India have struggled against Poms in their own backyard in the past.

Final (TBD)

The final of the World Test Championship will have the top two teams in the league stage taking on each other. The match will be taking place in June 2021 and the venue is yet to be decided (likely to be England).