The final of the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship, a Test cricket match, was played from 7 to 11 June 2023 at The Oval, London, between Australia and India. Australia won the match by 209 runs to win the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship. This marked Australia's maiden win of the Championship. As winners, they received a cash prize of US$1.6 million, while the Indian team received a cash prize of US$800,000. The victory in the final established Australia as the first team to have won all ICC tournaments across all three cricket formats.
Background
The World Test Championship league standings were determined based on percentage of matches won by each of the teams during the league stages of the tournament. Geoff Allardice, then acting chief executive of the ICC, explained that this adjustment was made to simplify the calculation process and create a more accurate representation of the teams' achievements. In September 2022, the ICC announced that The Oval in London would host the 2023 ICC World Test Championship Final, the second consecutive time the final was taking place in England. In February 2023, the ICC confirmed that the final would take place from 7 to 11 June 2023, with a reserve day on 12 June.
During the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship, both Australia and India emerged as the leading teams in terms of points. Going into the final India held the top position in the ICC Men's Test Team Rankings while Australia secured the second spot. Australia made their first-ever appearance in the world test final, whereas India had previously suffered a defeat against New Zealand in the 2021 final. Their most recent test series, the 2022-23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, was the last encounter between the two teams. On past performances, Australia had recorded only seven wins out of the 38 Test matches played at The Oval, while India had managed just two victories.
It is only the second instance of these two teams clashing in a final of a major ICC Event, the first being 20 years back in 2003 World Cup final at Johannesburg, South Africa where the Ricky Ponting-led mighty Australian team bamboozled a spirited Indian side led by Sourav Ganguly by a huge margin of 125 runs to successfully defend their title and win it for the third time.
Just weeks before the final, ICC made a change to the "soft signal rule", an umpire's input to the decision review system, stating that the rule would not be in effect starting from the World Test Championship final. On 7 June 2023, on the eve of the first day's play, ICC took measures to address potential disruptions from the intervention of Just Stop Oil protestors. Precautionary measures included preparation of a backup pitch for the final.
Route to the final
League table
Results
Source:
Squads
Changes
On 5 May 2023, K. L. Rahul was ruled out due to a thigh injury and on 8 May 2023, Ishan Kishan was announced as his replacement.
On 4 June 2023, Josh Hazlewood was ruled out due to an Achilles and side issue, with Michael Neser was named as his replacement.
Match
Match details and scorecard
Match officials
On-field umpires: Chris Gaffaney and Richard Illingworth
Third umpire: Richard Kettleborough
Reserve umpire: Kumar Dharmasena
Match referee: Richie Richardson
Summary
Day 1
Australian opener David Warner made a steady start for his team, while his partner Usman Khawaja fell for a duck to Mohammad Siraj's delivery. By the lunch break, Australia had reached a score of 73/2. Shortly after lunch, Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed by Mohammed Shami. Travis Head, batting at number five, adopted an aggressive approach and scored runs quickly, surpassing the fifty-run mark before tea. At that stage, Australia's total stood at 170/3. Following tea, Head and Steve Smith formed a valuable partnership, reaching the milestone of a hundred runs together. Smith also completed his fifty during the course of their partnership. In the 66th over, Head achieved the significant feat of scoring a century, marking his first century outside of Australia. By the end of the day's play, the partnership between Smith and Head had reached 251 runs, with Australia finishing strongly at 327/3. Head's individual score stood at 146, while Smith remained unbeaten on 95.