England cricket team
Joe Root-led England Test team has been eliminated from the race to the ICC World Test Championship final following India's emphatic 10-wicket win over the visitors at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
England created an outside chance for themselves to get into the World Test Championship final following their 2-0 historic clean sweep against Sri Lanka last month. All they needed was to beat India in India, a feat they had previously achieved back in 2012, by a margin of at least 2-1.
England did start the series, carrying their imperious form from Sri Lanka, to outscore the mighty Indian side in the first Test in Chennai where Root scored a double century. But India bounced back in style to pull off the equaliser with a 317-run win in the second Chennai Test.
Despite the tie, England needed one more victory to reach the final, but were folded twice for less than 150 on a turning Ahmedabad track with India's spin combination of Axar Patel and R Ashwin picking 18 wickets between themselves.
"England have dropped to 64.1 percentage points on the points table, which is now led by India with 71 percentage points," the ICC stated.
"England are out of the race for a place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship after losing the third Test against India in Ahmedabad," it added.
India, on the other hand, have inched one closer to the World Test Championship final where New Zealand awaits their opponent. India need to ensure at least a draw in the final tie, which will be held in Ahmedabad.
If England can manage to draw the series with a win in the fourth Test, Australia will reach the World Tet Championship final.
