Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah
With an objective to revamp the longest format of the game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) came up with a new-age tournament. The World Test Championship (WTC), in a first, was introduced in red-ball cricket to make the format more interesting and competitive.
Talking about the scoring system of the nine-team tournament, points in the WTC are evenly distributed over the number of matches in a series (two to five), the points varying from 60 for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series.
Despite receiving flak from a certain segment of the cricket fraternity, the championship has been successful in notching up the excitement of fans. India, led by Virat Kohli, are sitting at the top with 360 points, followed by Australia (296) and England (292) on second and third place respectively.
The top two teams at the end of the league will advance to the final, which will be played in the UK in June 2021 with the winners crowned the World Test Champions. In the race to lift the coveted trophy, the tournament has so far rolled out many impressive batting and bowling performances.
Meanwhile, the ICC, to celebrated 'Bowlers Month', acknowledged the top five leading wicket-takers of the WTC. The apex global cricket body, on Twitter, shared a picture stating five bowling maestros of the traditional format. The ICC also asked fans to choose their favourite among the five.
"The top five leading wicket-takers in the ICC World Test Championship. Which bowler is your favourite?" tweeted the ICC.
The first in the list is England's Stuart Broad, with 66 wickets under his belt. Broad has been in sensational form with the ball, especially after the return of cricket post COVID-19 hiatus. The speedster had delivered impressive performances against both West Indies and Pakistan.
Broad stands head and shoulders above other bowlers with 66 wickets while second in the list is Australia's Pat Cummins. A part of current Kolkata Knight Riders' set-up in IPL 2020, Cummins has 49 wickets to his name in the WTC. The third name in the list is another Australian- Nathan Lyon- with 47 scalps under his belt.
The fourth and fifth spot in the list is grabbed by Mohammed Shami and Jofra Archer. They both are currently tied with 36 scalps each. While Shami is plying his trade for Kings XI Punjab in the on-going IPL edition, Archer has been donning the Rajasthan Royals jersey.
