The ICC is set to approve the four -day Test in the World Test Championship, which can help small countries play more sports and long series. The current WTC cycle has approved only a five -day Test match by the ICC. This is why the small series has been emphasized.
The current WTC cycle started on Tuesday 17 June with a 2 -Test series between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. There will be only 2-2 matches in the 17 Test series out of 27 to participate in the WTC 2025-27 cycle. Apart from this, 6 series will be of 3-3 Test matches, while England, Australia and India will all play 1-1 Test series of 5-5 matches against each other.
According to The Guardian newspaper, ICC President Jai Shah expressed his support for the four-day Test for the WTC cycle of 2027-29 in the discussion during the WTC final at Lord’s last week. It states that England, Australia and India still start with Ashes, Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Tedilkar-Anderson Trophy with the first Test match between England and India in Headingley on Friday.
The ICC first approved the four -day Test for bilateral matches in 2017. England also played a four -day Test match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge last month after a four -day Test against Ireland in 2019 and 2023. According to the report, many small countries are not interested in hosting Test matches due to time and cost, but with the commencement of a four -day Test match, the entire series of three Test matches will be played in less than three weeks.
