How can Sri Lanka Qualify for the WTC 2023?

It will be one of the most significant turn around if the Sri Lanka cricket team is able to reach the final of the World Test Championship and play against Australia, who already qualified for the Finals for WTC.

The Table of ICC World Test Championship-

The ICC World Test Championship standings after India’s win in the Mumbai Test 👇#WTC23 | #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/YNrMyEvohr

— ICC (@ICC) December 6, 2021

Indian Cricket Team lost their 3rd test match against Australia in Indore by 9 Wickets and is now in danger of reaching the finals of the WTC, which will be played in Oval, London. In the past, India lost in the final of the WTC against New Zealand by 8 Wickets but this time, India will look to get one ICC trophy as it has been 9 years since India won any ICC trophy.

Sri Lanka Cricket Team is playing 2-match Test Series against the WTC champions New Zealand in New Zealand. So Far, Sri Lanka showed that they were not out of contention to consider as the big giants in the Cricket world. Last year, they won the Asia Cup against all odds, from Country crisis to player injuries. They still won the tournament.

In the first Test Match between New Zealand vs Sri Lanka. New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first but Sri Lanka came strong as they scored 355 runs which is a great score on Hagley Oval, Christchurch pitch which supports pace bowlers more.

Dimuth Karunaratne gave a steady start as he scored 50 runs but then Kusal Mendis came in and scored quick-fire 87 runs in just 83 balls which is impressive for a test match batsman to score runs at the strike rate of 104. After that, every Sri Lankan batter contributed and posted a total of 355.

New Zealand captain Tim Southee took 5 wicket haul in the 1st innings and Matthew Henry also picked 4 wickets alongside him. The Hero of New Zealand won against England in a recent test, Neil Wagner went wicketless and even gave 68 runs in just 10 overs with an economy rate of 6.8.

Tom Latham and Devon Conway started the opening stand really well as the first wicket fell on a score of 67 but after that, Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls got out cheaply, scoring 1 and 2, respectively. Dary Mitchell is now on 40, not out as day 2 comes off.

Sri Lankan Bowlers were able to take 5 wickets. Ashita Fernando took both openers wickets and the turning point of the day was when Lahiru Kumara took the wickets of Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls. At the end of the day, Kasun Rajitha took a wicket of the inform batsmen Tom Blundell.

New Zealand is on the back foot as they have already lost five wickets with 193 runs trailing over their head. Will Sri Lanka be able to take a wicket in the day 3 morning or will Dary Mitchell and Michael Bracewell be able to tackle down the Lankan’s pace bowling?

Can Sri Lanka reach the Final of WTC 2023?

Yes, Sri Lanka can reach the final of WTC 2023 but it will be a miracle if that happens but the ongoing test matches situation of both India and Srilanka favors Srilanka’s chance to reach the final of WTC 2023.

Suppose India Loses the 4th match of the Boarder Gavaskar Trophy. In that case, Srilanka’s door will open wide but to enter the door to the WTC final, they have to win both test matches against the New Zealand side in New Zealand and the last time they won the match against New Zealand in their own turf was in 2005/2006 year and since then not able to win any match.

If Sri Lanka loses any match, then they will be out, and India will be in the final of WTC 2023. If Sri Lanka wins both test match and India also win the 4th test match against Australia, then India will still qualify for the final.

The only option for Sri Lanka is to win both test matches and hope India loses the 4th test match and it is a possible scenario as Australia is already on the verge of scoring a mammoth total in their first innings.