World Test Championship will be like World Cup, believes Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke has stated that the World Test Championship, which starts with the Ashes tomorrow, will do to Test cricket what the World Cup does for the sport. The top two teams will contest in the WTC Final in June 2021 and the winners will be crowned ICC World Test Champions.
The World Test Championship starts with the Ashes as Australia take on England starting on August 1 in Birmingham and it will be an experiment to add context to the sport. While there has still been a lot of questions left to be answered, Clarke believes that the tournament will be a little bit like the World Cup no matter where you are ranked in the ICC standings.
"I think it's great for Test cricket. The top two teams playing in something like the World Cup final at Lord's in 12 months (24 months) time," Clarke said on the sidelines of the MedParliament, reported India Today.
“It's a little bit like the World Cup (in the way that) no matter where you are ranked in the ICC standings, the team that wins the World Cup is, I think, seen as the best team in the world. With Test cricket it will be the same, whoever wins the championship is the best team in the world.”
With the Ashes, the tainted trio of Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft will return to Test cricket after they served out their bans for their involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal. While the batting order still seems fragile and bowling a tad less threatening, Clarke is positive about the Aussies.
"This Australian team is very talented. (Josh) Hazlewood's back in the squad, Warner, Smith, and Bancroft are back. James Pattinson is fit again and he is the squad. It will be interesting to see what XI they will pick," said Clarke