Due to the novel COVID-19 or coronavirus outbreak, the second half of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (2019-21) has been affected as some Test series have already been postponed. While the Pakistan Head Coach Misbah-ul-Haq has recently raised his voice to extend the timeline of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship, the Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali has also supported this view.
Already two full Test series and one partial Test series under WTC have been postponed amid coronavirus outbreak. While England tour of Sri Lanka and Australia tour of Bangladesh have already been postponed, the second Test between the host Pakistan and the visitors Bangladesh has also been postponed due to the pandemic.
Like his coach Misbah-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali also believes that the ICC will think about the extension of the ongoing Test Championship once the game will resume after the present pandemic gets over. The Pakistan Test captain also feels that it will be not a big deal to extend the inaugural Test Championship, which he will support.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Ali said, “I’m sure the ICC will look at this. The Test Championship was a long competition anyway, so I don’t think it would be a big deal to extend it if the series cannot be held in time; I’d support extending the Test championship.”
The series coming up in the Test championship will determine where we stand: Azhar Ali
in the inaugural WTC, Pakistan still has left three full Test series – away Test series against England and New Zealand and home Test series against South Africa. Azhar Ali is looking forward to the forthcoming Test series as he believes that these series will determine their ultimate standing in this tournament.
He claimed, “The series coming up in the Test championship will determine where we stand. We have big series coming up in New Zealand and England, and we need to win at least three-four Tests across those series to give ourselves a good chance of reaching the final. That’s very much our aim, and we’re still looking at those series as crucial to our chances of going far in this championship.”
While the top nine-ranked Test teams are fighting in the 2019-21 World Test Championship, the top two teams in the final points table will qualify for the final of this tournament. The final will be the one-off Test, which the Lord’s (London) will host between 10th and 14th June 2021.