Extended squads to be allowed for senior events, coping with the COVID-19 requirements

In a series of virtual meetings held on Thursday, the ICC decided to allow as many as seven additional team members and/or support staff to travel along with each of the touring senior events teams.

With the COVID-19 quarantine requirements in place, teams will be allowed to carry as many as 30 members on an international tour or to any of the ICC tournaments to be scheduled shortly. This automatically implies that Team India will be allowed to travel with a 30-strong squad for the finals of the World Test Championship to be held in June.

"The ICC board agreed to allow members to take up to seven additional seven players and/or support staff to accompany the squad of 23 to ICC senior events where a period of quarantine is required and/or teams are accommodated in a biosecure bubble", the world body said in a statement.

India to play the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand later in June this year

India will be playing the World Test Championship finals against New Zealand from 18th to 22nd of June

Team India had a really good home and away outing in the summer of 2020-21. The team toured Australia and played England at home in two competitive test match series and won both of them in thrilling fashion. In the process, they climbed up the World Test Championship table to top it both in terms of points (520 points) and that of percentage of points won (72.2%).

India will be playing against New Zealand in the finals of the inaugural World Test Championship. New Zealand themselves enjoyed a great run at home in the summer as they swept past every touring team in all formats. Though they were the first ones to qualify for the World Test Championship finals, they ended up second in the points table with 420 points, and 70.0% of points won.

The two teams will be playing it out for the elusive silverware and the title of being the winner of the inaugural edition of the championship. With the best bowling and batting attacks clashing head-on, one expects a mouth-watering clash between the two giants on 18 June at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.