Can India qualify for the WTC final even after losing Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia?

India are coming off a 3-0 hammering at home against New Zealand, which has put their World Test Championship final qualification chances in jeopardy. Without depending upon anyone, India have to win at least four Tests out of the five against Australia to qualify. But can they make it without winning the series? Let's take a look-

With the performances and the form India showed in the New Zealand series, anything better than 0-5 defeat (0-4, 0-3, 1-4) would be a great result for the touring party. However, for India to reach the WTC final from those scorelines, it will take some task but it is possible but other results have to go a specific way for that

First up - if India lose 0-4 or 0-5, they are out. No chance of qualification if India don't win anything and lose four or more Tests in the Australia series

Now that is out of the way, so let's get into the practical scenarios. If the scoreline is 1-4/0-2/0-3, India will have to hope that England beat New Zealand 2-0 or even 3-0, Pakistan beat South Africa 2-0, Australia beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and South Africa and Sri Lanka level 1-1

If the scoreline is 1-2/1-3/0-0/0-1, India will have to hope that England win the series against New Zealand, Pakistan beat South Africa 2-0, Australia beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and South Africa and Sri Lanka level 1-1

If the scoreline is 2-3, India will have to hope that New Zealand don't win more than one Test against England and both Sri Lanka and South Africa lose two of their remaining four Tests respectively

If the scoreline is 2-2, India will have to hope that New Zealand don't win more than one Test against England and that Sri Lanka beat Australia in the two-match series to have a shot at the final

There are a few scenarios for wins as well like if the scoreline is 2-1 or 3-1 or 1-0 or 1-1 or 4-1 or 2-0 or 3-0. However, since we are talking about losses only as of now, these are the scenarios. Hence, in short, India can't afford four losses and if they lose two or three, the situation will increasingly get out of their hands. India have to start well in Perth before all this opens up again