The format of the Test championship has nine teams playing six series over the two-year period in which three each home and away with each series having a minimum of two Tests and a maximum of five. The India-Pakistan bilateral series is not expected to be part of ICC’s recently launched Test championship that is set to start after the 2019 World Cup. With no clarity on the Indian government giving the BCCI the go-ahead to play with its neighbors, the ICC, it is learned, is not expected to slot any India-Pakistan Test series in the Future Tours Programme (FTP) draft that it is working on. The BCCI had explained their stand vis-a-vis playing Pakistan at the ICC meeting in Auckland earlier this month.

The top two teams will contest a play-off final to determine the Test champions in England in June 2021. In case, India and Pakistan to make it to the final, the chance of the two arch-rivals playing the title contest are high since that would be seen as an ICC event. Over the years, India has continued to play Pakistan in ICC events despite the bilateral impasse. “As per the Test championship draft, it says, a Test team has to play with six Test-playing nations in a four-year cycle. So India can play with Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Test championship cycle. It leaves no window for us with Pakistan. 

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