India Will Be Fancying Their Chances In World Test Championship: Virat Kohli

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday officially launched the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC), which will get underway on August 1. To be played over two years, the World Test Championship will witness the top nine Test teams in the world compete in 71 Test matches across 27 series. The two top teams will then go head to head in the World Test Championship final to be held in the United Kingdom in 2021. Speaking about the event, Virat Kohli said that the Indian team will be "fancying its chances in the championship".

"We are awaiting the ICC World Test Championship with great enthusiasm as it adds context to the longest format of the game," said India's skipper, Virat Kohli said in an ICC media release.

"Test cricket is very challenging and coming out on top in the traditional form is always highly satisfying. The Indian team has done really well in recent years and will be fancying its chances in the championship."

Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies are the nine teams that will battle it out for the top honours in the World Test Championship.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) first came up with the idea in 2009 and the championship was approved in 2010, with plans of hosting the first edition in 2013. The tournament got postponed to 2017 and was cancelled later. Finally, it was decided that the inaugural ICC World Test Championship will be played from August 1, 2019 to April 30, 2021.

Every series in the championship will be worth 120 points, irrespective of the number of Tests. Therefore, a team can score a maximum of 720 points in a cycle.

India will begin their campaign in the championship with the two-match Test series against the West Indies starting August 22.