Historic win of Bangladesh make place for WTC.
Bangladesh are in the middle of their best run in the three iterations of the World Test Championship. They have now won the third Test in this cycle - they only won one across 19 matches in the first two editions combined. They started the series just one place above bottom-dwellers West Indies, but have jumped up to the fourth place, a few decimal points ahead of England. Pakistan, on the other hand, have now lost five successive Tests and have taken Bangladesh's place at eighth with half of their cycle done and dusted.
Bangladesh are in the middle of their best run in the three iterations of the World Test Championship. They have now won the third Test in this cycle - they only won one across 19 matches in the first two editions combined. They started the series just one place above bottom-dwellers West Indies, but have jumped up to the fourth place, a few decimal points ahead of England. Pakistan, on the other hand, have now lost five successive Tests and have taken Bangladesh's place at eighth with half of their cycle done and dusted.
Bangladesh have a tour to India, followed by the tour to Caribbean before hosting South Africa at home to complete their cycle (all three involve two Tests each). Pakistan have a tough tour to South Africa (two Tests) in December-January, where they are currently on a seven-Test losing streak, sandwiched between home series against England in October (three Tests) and West Indies next January (two Tests).
India qualified for the final of WTC cycle 2 from the second position behind Australia with percentage points (PCT) of 58.2%. Assuming that as the threshold for this edition too, Bangladesh would need another 52 points from their last six Tests. They can get to that only by a combination of four wins and a draw.
The fifth defeat on the bounce meant Pakistan's chance of qualification had practically ended. For Pakistan's PCT to get to 58.2%, they would need 84 points and to get there they would need to win all their remaining seven Tests.
Neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh play Australia or New Zealand who currently sit second and third in the points table and both would ideally want one of the trans-Tasman teams to drop points.
