How the World Test Championship Points System Works Analysis

In the 2025-27 cycle nine nations compete over two years. Each plays six series, three at home and three away, and each series runs from two to five Tests. Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe are Full Members but sit outside the nine-team league.

Teams do not play the same number of matches. Australia are scheduled for 22 Tests in 2025-27, the most of any side, while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka play 12. Ranking by total points would favour the boards that host five-Test series, so the table ranks by percentage of points won (PCT): points won divided by points contested, where each Test contests 12.

The formula is PCT = (points won minus penalty points) divided by (Tests played times 12), multiplied by 100. A draw gives each side 4 of the 12 points it contested, so only 8 of the 24 points on offer in the match are awarded. A tie is rarer and worth more: our draw article counts exactly 2 ties in 2,537 Tests.

The first cycle, which began in August 2019, tried to make every series equal. Each series was worth 120 points, divided among its Tests. The table shows what that did to the value of a single Test.

Under the first system a win in a two-Test series was worth 60 points, the same as two and a half wins in a five-Test series. Series cancelled by the pandemic left teams on very different numbers of matches, the ICC moved the 2019-21 ranking to PCT, and from 2021-23 every Test carried 12 points.

A flat 12 points does not make every Test count equally in the final percentage. A team with 12 Tests in a cycle puts 8.33% of its whole campaign on each match (12 out of 144). For a team with 22 Tests the figure is 4.55% (12 out of 264). One drawn Test costs a 12-Test side 5.56% of its maximum PCT (8 out of 144), so short schedules have higher variance.

Two teams reach the Final. The second-place mark has moved a lot between cycles.

Second place finished between 58.80% and 70.00%. Because home advantage in Test cricket is strong, teams build their campaigns around home wins and limit the damage abroad. The table below turns four results across a 14-Test cycle (7 home, 7 away, 168 points contested) into PCT, using only the points rules above.

Two points follow from the arithmetic. A draw is worth 4 points wherever it is played, but a home draw leaves an 8-point hole against the 12 a side hopes to take from every home Test, and only a win abroad refills it. And a home defeat cannot be repaired by away draws, because three away draws return 12 of 36 contested points, a 33.33% return. India lost 0-3 at home to New Zealand in late 2024 and finished the 2023-25 cycle third on 50.00%.

As The Disappearing Draw shows, draws are now rarer than ever, so a side that does save a Test on day five has done something that fewer teams manage each decade.

Fielding sides must bowl at least 15 overs an hour, after time allowances for stoppages. Each over a side finishes short costs it one WTC point, and every player is fined 5% of the match fee per over, capped at 50%.

Two exemptions apply. If a side bowls the opposition out before the 80-over mark and the new ball is not yet due, that innings is left out of the calculation. If a side bowls the opposition out twice and needs 160 overs or fewer across both innings, it faces no sanction for the match. The ICC raised these from 60 and 120 overs in July and August 2023, and applied them from the start of the 2023-25 cycle. The 80-over exemption needs an actual dismissal of the batting side, not just an innings that ends another way.

The 2023 Ashes shows how much this can move the table. The ICC confirmed England lost 19 WTC points across the series, 2 at Edgbaston, 9 at Lord's, 3 at Old Trafford and 5 at The Oval, while Australia lost 10, all at Old Trafford, where they were 10 overs short and fined 50% of the match fee.

Over rates have changed who reached a Final. In the first cycle Australia were docked 4 points for a slow rate against India at Melbourne. They finished third on 69.17% (332 of 480 points), behind New Zealand on 70.00% (420 of 600). Without the 4 points they would have had 336 of 480, which is also 70.00%, level with New Zealand.

In June 2025 the ICC added a stop clock for Tests in the 2025-27 cycle. The fielding side must be ready to start each over within 60 seconds. It gets two warnings, a third breach costs 5 penalty runs, and warnings reset after each block of 80 overs. The end-of-match points deduction still applies on top. England lost 2 points for a slow rate in the Lord's win over India in 2025, and in June 2026 they lost 12 points for finishing 12 overs short in the Oval Test against New Zealand, which wiped out the points from a full win.

The Final is a single Test. The ICC has confirmed The Oval in London as the venue for the 2025-27 Final, from 9 to 13 June 2027. A reserve day is available if playing time is lost to weather or light and cannot be made up. In 2021 New Zealand beat India on the sixth day at Southampton.

If the Final is drawn or tied after all scheduled time, there is no countback and no Super Over, and both finalists are declared joint World Test Champions.

We make CricArcade, so read this with that in mind. Two of our free browser games sit on top of these rules.

• Cricket Manager runs a national team across Test, ODI and T20I on the real 2026-27 calendar. Its World Test Championship starts from the real 2025-27 table as it stood on 5 October 2026, over-rate deductions included, and each of the nine nations plays three home and three away series a cycle.
• The Follow-On is our five-day Test captaincy game, built on 2,537 real Tests from 1877 to March 2024 and 3,274 real Test players. You make the calls on declarations, follow-ons, new balls and collapses.

For more on the Test format, read Timeless Tests and the History of the Draw and Does Winning the Toss Win Tests?