DUBAI: Australia begin their defence of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) title in a high-profile series against England from Friday.
The five-match Ashes series begins in Birmingham with Lord’s, Leeds, Manchester and The Oval hosting the remaining matches.
Australia play nine matches in this cycle away from home, which include two-Test series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. At home, they play against India (five), Pakistan (three) and the West Indies (two), for a total of 10 Tests.
England feature in 10 Tests at home and 11 away. They host the West Indies (3) and Sri Lanka (2) apart from Australia, while playing away in India (five), Pakistan (3) and New Zealand (3).
India’s two-Test tour of the West Indies, where they play in Dominica and Trinidad next month, is also part of the third edition of the WTC.
The structure of the nine-team WTC remains the same with each team playing three home and three away series over a two-year period culminating in the final of a one-off Test. The points percentage system used in the previous edition will determine the leaderboard with teams getting 12 points for a win, six for a tie and four for a draw. (ICC Media)
