Will India lose WTC points if ICC rates Ahmedabad pitch as 'poor'? All scenarios Explained

India vs England: Although it is unlikely that ICC will pass such a judgment on the Ahmedabad pitch used for the third Test but even if they do, it won’t affect India’s points in the World Test Championship (WTC).

The debate on pitches has somewhat taken the focus away from the on-field cricket in the ongoing India vs England Test series. If the second Test in Chennai acted as the initiator, the Ahmedabad pitch for the third Test match took the debate to a whole new level with former cricketers from India and England giving different opinions.

Indian captain Virat Kohli with teammates during a Test match against England(PTI)

All the hullabaloo over the Ahmedabad pitch for the day-night Test has given rise to speculation on whether India will be docked World Test Championship (WTC) points if ICC decides to rate the Motera pitch as ‘poor’.

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Although it is unlikely that ICC will pass such a judgment on the Ahmedabad pitch but even if they do, it won’t affect India’s points in the World Test Championship.

According to an ESPNCricinfo report, the venue will get three demerit points if the pitch is rated poor. It, however, does not impact the home team in any way.

WTC playing conditions suggest that only if a match abandoned due to unfit playing condition does the hosts get penalized.

"If a match is abandoned and the pitch and/or outfield is ultimately rated as 'Unfit' under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, points for that match shall be distributed on the basis that the visiting team won the match and the home team lost the match. Any abandoned match will be classified as a drawn match for statistical purposes," state WTC playing conditions.

In this case, however, the match was complete and thus there is no way India will be penalized for the pitch.

India need to either win or draw the last Test to stay ahead of Australia, who are in third place with 69.2 percentage points. If they manage to do that in the fourth Test against England starting on March 4 then Virat Kohli’s will play New Zealand in the WTC final at Lord’s.

Meanwhile, England, who are now 2-1 down in the four-match series, are out of the race for a place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship.

England has dropped to 64.1 percentage points on the points table, which is now led by India with 71 percentage points.