World Test Championship Scenarios: Can India Still Qualify For WTC Final 2025 Despite Defeat to Australia at MCG?

World Test Championship Scenarios: Team India will depend on outcome of other results to book a meeting against South Africa at Lord’s after going down to Australia in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the MCG.

A day after South Africa booked their berth for next year's WTC final in London, and with crucial WTC points at stake, India and Australia locked horns at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground for a boxing day Test, which the home side ran away with a 184-run win.

On the final day of play in Melbourne, Rohit Sharma's India were set a challenging 340 to chase for a historic win, but Pat Cummins' Australia stood firm and claimed a crucial win, which saw the hosts go 2-1 up in the five-match series.

With this win, Australia firmed their grip on second place the World Test Championship standings with a point percentage of 61.46, while India still remained in third, but their percentage of points took a hit, dropping to 52.78.

Australia now remain favourites to keep their title defence alive, but India will try and challenge for the spot when the two teams lock horns again in Sydney. Here is a look at the latest WTC standings followed by the remaining matches in WTC 2023-25 cycle:

WTC 2023-25 Standings After IND vs AUS 4th Test on December 30, 2024

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win Percent	Points
South Africa	11	7	3	1	66.67	88
Australia	16	10	4	2	61.46	118
India	18	9	7	2	52.78	114
New Zealand	14	7	7	0	48.21	84
Sri Lanka	11	5	6	0	45.45	60
England	22	11	10	1	43.18	114
Bangladesh	12	4	8	0	31.25	45
Pakistan	11	4	7	0	30.30	40
West Indies	11	2	7	2	24.24	32

Earlier on Sunday (December 29), South Africa became the first team to book their final spot following 2-wicket thrilling win over Pakistan at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The Proteas as a result reached the World Test Championship final berth. Who will join them?

World Test Championship Scenarios - Who will face South Africa on June 11?

Australia: The Aussies remain favourites having won the crucial Boxing Day Test against India. They can still go through if the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy ends 2-2. However, they will then need to win at least one Test of the away series against Sri Lanka.

India: The Men in Blue needed to win the Melbourne Test to keep their hopes alive after the home series white-wash by New Zealand, put them on the backfoot heading into the tour Down Under. They still boosted their hopes by winning the opening Test against Australia in Perth.

Since the Perth Test win, India has lost two Tests and managed to draw one, leaving them depending on results elsewhere to book a third successive WTC Final berth. India will need to win the next match in Sydney, and hope Sri Lanka beat Australia 1-0 next month.

Sri Lanka: The Lankans are the least favourites at this stage, but are still mathematically alive as they will want Australia to draw the Sydney Test against India, and then they will need to beat Australia 2-0 on home soil next month.

Apart from India and Australia, the WTC finalists South Africa will also be in red ball action in the coming days. Here is a look at the Test matches of the WTC 2023-25 cycle scheduled for January and February 2025: