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Legendary Indian batter and former head coach Rahul Dravid believes that the Shubman Gill-led team has fallen slightly behind in the race to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, although their strong start against Sri Lanka has given them fresh hope.
India's race to the WTC Final 2027 has entered a crucial stage, with just eight Tests remaining and almost six wins needed to keep their hopes alive without depending on the other outcomes.
The Shubman Gill-led India National Cricket Team is currently fifth in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 points table and faces a huge task to make it to the title clash. Amid this, Dhruv Jurel provides Rishabh Pant injury update, explains special century celebration.
Rahul Dravid Backs India’s WTC Final push
They currently lead the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 by winning the first Test by 165 runs in Galle and are in a strong position in the second and final Test after an impressive batting performance in Colombo.
However, Rahul Dravid admitted that India are slightly behind in the WTC final race, but he still believes they can qualify. The former head coach has stressed that India has a strong team and should not be written off yet for the championship clash at The Oval next year.
Rahul Dravid was quoted as saying by JioStar, “I'm hoping they do. It'll be a great run if India can qualify for the WTC final from here. They've fallen behind a little bit, but the kind of quality that the Indian team has, you're not going to write them off at any stage. They started off well against Sri Lanka, so that's a good first step.”
Rahul Dravid warns India ahead of New Zealand tour
Well, the real challenge is waiting ahead for the young Indian team. They will travel to New Zealand for two Tests in October before hosting Australia for the high-profile five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier next year. Dravid believes that the New Zealand tour will be a major test.
Rahul Dravid further explained, “(Playing against) New Zealand away (is) always a challenge. They are a tough team, New Zealand, to play away from home. A lot of the young Indian boys have not played in those conditions, so that's going to be a big challenge. Hopefully, they can keep the guys fit and not have a lot of injuries over the next few months.”
Since India will be without their senior pros, the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara, who all have retired, the legendary Indian batter said that will make the New Zealand series an interesting one. Amid this, Mohammed Siraj sledges Kamil Mishara, Prasidh Krishna strikes next over in Colombo.
Rahul Dravid reveals Australia’s biggest motivation in BGT
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be another blockbuster series. Australia has a generation of great players who have not won a Test series in India, and the former Indian captain said that they will be desperate to script history next year.
Dravid signed off by saying, “Australia will be really exciting. A lot of their players will be very keen to do well in India. That's a generation of truly great Australian players, a great Australian team that has not won in India. So, they'll be keen to do that.”
