With the Shubman Gill led Indian team currently placed fifth in World Test Championships with four wins and four losses in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle, the Indian team will need to win
With the Shubman Gill led Indian team currently placed fifth in World Test Championships with four wins and four losses in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle, the Indian team will need to win the two Tests during the New Zealand tour later this year as well the planned two Tests in Sri Lanka to have a chance to qualify for the final of the WTC. While the Indian team faces Afghanistan in the one-off Test at Mullanpur starting Saturday, the Test is not part of the WTC cycle. When asked how optimistic is the Indian team for qualifying for the WTC final, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir sounded optimistic and shared how the team believes that they can win the World Test Championship.
“We are always optimistic. Till you have the opportunity to qualify for the World Test championship Final, you are always optimistic because we know the kind of quality we have and the kind of talent we have. I don’t think so there’s any reason not to believe that we cannot win the World Test Championship. And that is what not only me, but everyone in that dressing room will believe. Yes, we can have one or bad series here and there, but we know the kind of talent we have and how much hunger is there in the dressing room,” Gambhir said while addressing the press conference ahead of the India Afghanistan Test match.
The Indian team is also expected to play two Tests matches in Sri Lanka post the England tour, where the team will be playing five T20Is and three ODIs. Gambhir also shared how the team is looking towards the possible Sri Lanka Tour as well as how the team will plan differently for the New Zealand tour later in the year. “We are a little fortunate that we’ve got enough time before Sri Lanka because we have got a 15-day break between England and Sri Lanka. So that’s enough time to prepare for those two matches. You might have to prepare a little differently for New Zealand because between the last ODI and the first test match, there is only a three-day break. So we have to pull out ODI players who are part of the Test team because one thing we realise is that we need to start preparing better in red-ball cricket. And that was something which was slacking against West Indies and also against South Africa,” signed off Gambhir.
Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
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