India will travel to the West Indies for its opening series in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC), the ICC announced on Wednesday as it released the Future Tours Programme for the 2018-2023 cycle.
India will play a two-Test series in the Caribbean as part of the WTC. Overall, nine top-ranked sides will participate in the first edition of the WTC which will run from July 15, 2019 to April 30, 2021.
The West Indies series will take place right after the 2019 ODI World Cup and the tour will also comprise three ODIs and as many T20Is. India is also set to host the West Indies for three Tests, five ODIs and three T20Is later this year.
India’s second opponent in the WTC will be South Africa which it will host for three Tests. That home series in October 2019 will be followed by another one against Bangladesh, which will travel to India for two Tests and three T20Is. India’s next couple of series in WTC will take place in New Zealand (two Tests) and Australia (four Tests) in 2020-2021 before it plays England in a five-Test series at home.
The WTC series against New Zealand in 2020 will have Tests but no five-day games are scheduled when India travels to play the Black Caps next year.
Expectedly, India and Pakistan are not scheduled to play in the WTC but they could still meet in the final. In total, India will play 18 Tests in WTC and 12 of them will be against Australia, South Africa and England.
”Bringing context to bilateral cricket is not a new challenge, but with the release of this FTP, our members have found a genuine solution,” ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson stated.
