The Indian team have been ruthless for some time now. Ever since the Rahul Dravid-Rohit Sharma combo ended India’s ICC trophy drought with the T20 World Cup 2024 win, there has been no stopping India. The Men in Blue lifted the ICC Champions Trophy crown before recently becoming the first team to defend the T20 World Cup crown. The junior and women’s teams have been no less with multiple Under-19 World Cups and the huge Women’s ODI World Cup at home.
Gautam Gambhir gets candid
While India have been unbreakable in white-ball cricket, there are huge concerns in the Test setup. A team that had a run of 12 years going unbeaten at home, have now lost two home Test series under Gautam Gambhir. The Indian head coach has now endorsed Test cricket after the T20 World Cup 2026 win. When asked about his next target, Gambhir quickly stated that he wants India to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 final.
While speaking to ANI, Gautam was questioned about whether he is already thinking about the LA Olympics 2028. Cricket obviously returns in the Olympics after over 100 years and Suryakumar Yadav has put forward his desire to clinch it as well. India will surely qualify since they are the best-ranked team from Asia (both men’s and women’s).
However, Gambhir’s tenure as head coach will end before the LA Olympics, which will be played in July 2028. However, Gambhir’s tenure as India all-format head coach runs until the Men’s ODI World Cup 2027. While his focus will be in ODIs, Gambhir has been a vocal admirer of Test cricket and would love to see India do well in that format. India is yet to win a World Test Championship Final despite playing it twice.
“Test cricket is very close to my heart. I hope that first we can qualify for the World Test Championship final. That’s my next target and we still have nine test matches to go and the focus is going to be there…The boys really want to do well in Test cricket, that is where legacies are made…When you go through those 5 days of hard work and when you get the result, there is no more satisfaction than getting a test win under your belt. Whether it is the T20 World Cup final, whether it is 50 over game, Test cricket gives you ultimate happiness.”
Can India really play WTC Final?
However, under Gambhir, India have been ordinary in Test cricket. He has only beat the likes of Bangladesh and the West Indies at home. To be fair on him, India are in a transitional period in red-ball cricket after three huge retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin. However, as an Indian head coach, you’ll receive flak for every loss.
Gautam Gambhir’s coaching record in Tests
Gambhir’s record as a Test coach has been underwhelming, with India suffering a clean sweep in their home series against New Zealand. Lost 3 matches in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Luckily, the series against England ended 2-2 and then India beat the West Indies at home. But then another embarrassment came when they lost 0-2 vs South Africa at home.
| Matches | Won | Lost | Draw | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 36.84 |
In this cycle, India have played nine games and have managed to win just four of them. Currently stranded at sixth place, India have far worse chances to qualify for the WTC 2027 final than ever. Due to a drawn series against England and a home series loss to South Africa, India have points percentage of 48.15. Unfortunately, India have played the second-most games already.
Still, there are chances, with India slated to play nine more Tests. This year, they will play a two-game away series in Sri Lanka followed by a tricky tour of New Zealand later this year. The last series of this WTC cycle for India would be a much-awaited BGT home series against Australia in January-February 2027.
Fascinatingly, India will play their first international game after the T20 World Cup 2026 in the form of a one-off Test against Afghanistan in June 2026. However, that won’t be part of the WTC cycle.
ICC World Test Championship 2025–2027 – Points Table
| Position | Team | M | W | L | D | PTS | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 84 | 87.50 |
| 2 | New Zealand | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 77.78 |
| 3 | South Africa | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 75.00 |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 66.67 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 50.00 |
| 6 | India | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 52 | 48.15 |
| 7 | England | 10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 38 | 31.67 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 16.67 |
| 9 | West Indies | 8 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 4.17 |
