Veteran Australia spinner Nathan Lyon has suggested a big change in the World Test Championship with a proposal for ICC to expand the one-off final to a three-match series held across different countries. Lyon won the WTC title last year after beating India in the final at the Oval, London.
Lyon asserted that converting a one-off Test to a three-match series to decide the WTC winner gives both teams a fair chance and brings a lot more competitiveness, with the matches being played in three completely different conditions.
However, the ace spinner feels that the thing which sets WTC apart from other tournaments is the unique-two year format where the teams have the task to perform consistently well over a long period and not just a month or two.
"It's not tournament play. You can't just be scraping into the semi-finals and losing two games or what not," Lyon said, as per quoted by ICC.
"You've got to be consistent over the two years of the cycle," he added.
Lyon admitted that holding a three-match Test series to decide the WTC winner would be a challenge in terms of scheduling, but he still proposed the idea, and he made some valid points behind it.
"One thing I would like to see, I'd like to see the World Test Championship Final potentially in a three-match series. That may become a little bit better because you potentially can lose using a Test match in one session where [in a three-match series] it may allow teams to bounce back all your show their dominance and win 3-0. We're pretty time-poor anyway and that's going to be a challenge but that's one thing I would change," Lyon said.
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‘Three-match WTC Final - one in England, one in India, one in Australia’
{{/usCountry}}"One thing I would like to see, I'd like to see the World Test Championship Final potentially in a three-match series. That may become a little bit better because you potentially can lose using a Test match in one session where [in a three-match series] it may allow teams to bounce back all your show their dominance and win 3-0. We're pretty time-poor anyway and that's going to be a challenge but that's one thing I would change," Lyon said.
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‘Three-match WTC Final - one in England, one in India, one in Australia’
{{/usCountry}}The Aussie star further suggested the venues for his proposed three-match series - England, India and Australia.
"You potentially could go one in England, one in India, one in Australia, so you have all different conditions, but obviously, the timing of that changes everything. I don't think we're going to get on the MCG in the middle of August, just putting it out there," he noted.
Defending champions Australia are currently placed at the second spot in the WTC 2023-25 points table behind India, who were the runner-ups in the last two editions. The upcoming five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy would be crucial for both teams. The ICC had already announced that next year's WTC final be played at the iconic Lord's between June 11 and 15 next year. The ICC has marked June 16 as the reserve day, if required.