World Test Championship is confusing: England captain Ben Stokes

England captain Ben Stokes said that he was quite confused by the format of the World Test Championship. Stokes' England are currently at the 6th position in the points table and are unlikely to make it to the final.

In Short

• Ben Stokes says that he is confused by the WTC
• England are 6th in the WTC table
• England are unlikely to make it to WTC Final

England captain Ben Stokes said that he found the World Test Championship format utterly confusing. Speaking ahead of the first Test match against New Zealand in Christchurch, Stokes said that it was weird to play an ICC trophy for a long period of time.

Through his statements, Stokes pointed out at the 24-month period that the World Test Championship is played over. The current cycle started after India lost their 2023 final vs Australia at the Oval, and will conclude at the Lord's Stadium in June 2025.

England have never made it to the final of the WTC despite playing the most number of matches. England, at the moment are placed at the 6th position in the league table and are unlikely to make it to the final of the tournament.

“In all honesty, the World Test Championship, it is a bit confusing, it’s one of those where, you know we don’t really look at it, I don’t look at it,” Stokes told reporters. “It’s one of those where over a long period of time if you’re playing really good cricket, you’re getting results that you want, you’ll end up finding yourself there in the final and in the mix,” Ben Stokes sad.

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“For me and this team it’s about taking it game by game, series by series and if you end up finding yourself in the position where you happen to be in that world test championship final, then it’s great but it’s a real weird one knowing that you’re playing for something over a long period of time,” he further added.

“I can’t remember if I’ve ever even given any real time to be specifically thinking about the World Test Championship to be honest because it’s utterly confusing, we play a lot more cricket than anyone else does, that’s just what we try and focus on, you know, if we play well, we’ll be there or thereabouts but if we don’t, then we won’t be,” concluded the England captain.

At the moment 5 teams are in the hunt for the WTC finals' spots. Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are vying for the position in the finals.

The thrilling race to the final was intensified by New Zealand hammering India away from home, which made India slip to the 2nd spot in the table. India however recovered that after hammering Australia in the 1st Test match at Perth. They need to win the Bordr-gavaskar Trophy 4-0 to make it to their 3rd successive final.