Why India’s odds of making the WTC Final are better after Pakistan lost the second test to England

Pakistan is in really perilous straits. It is true that the prospects of Babar Azam’s team making it to the final of the World Test Championship are currently extremely slim. A little more than a week ago, Pakistan was in command of their situation and their fate.

The Asian giants had a solid chance of obtaining one of the two open seats in the WTC final because they were scheduled to play five home Test matches in the near future, albeit against formidable opponents such as England and New Zealand.

In contrast, Pakistan has not only lost the home series to England after suffering a defeat in the first match of the series at Rawalpindi, but they have also insured that their future is no longer in their own hands by suffering a close defeat in the second match of the series at Multan.

After suffering the loss, Pakistan dropped to the sixth position on the WTC leaderboard. With three matches remaining, one against England and two against New Zealand, Babar Azam’s men are aware that they not only need to win all of their remaining matches, but they also need to hope that other results go in their favour.

One of those would be for India to lose both of their upcoming Test matches against Bangladesh, which, despite the fact that Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Rohit Sharma (1st Test) are not on the team, appears like it might be a bit of a stretch.

Because of what happened in Multan, India now has a chance to reach the final even if they end up losing one of the four Tests they play against Australia at home.

However, in order for Rohit Sharma’s squad to still have reason for optimism by the time they play host to the Baggygreens in February, they will first need to win both of the upcoming matches against Bangladesh without conceding a single run.

The series that will be played between Australia and South Africa will also be an important one in this whole thing. India would be hoping that the Proteas are defeated by the Australians at their own stadium, as this would improve their prospects of overtaking the Proteas and moving into second place.

In the next two months, there will be a lot of different permutations and combinations that will be played out, which will make test cricket even more intriguing for those who strictly adhere to the rules.