Rahul Dravid backs India to qualify for WTC final

It is already a tall order, even without rain playing spoilsport, given India’s ‘mission WTC final’ hinges on several factors going their way. Now fifth in the ICC Test rankings with a PCT of 53.33, Shubman Gill’s side are targeting a place in next year's June final at The Oval and are in a mid-table battle with several teams looking to stake their claim.

India are currently behind Bangladesh who tally a PCT of 55.56 after their 1-1 draw in Australia, but will take the fourth spot if they beat Sri Lanka in Colombo and can then push for the top three, which is currently occupied by Australia (80 PCT), South Africa (75 PCT) and New Zealand (72.22 PCT).

Former India coach Dravid, who oversaw India's run to the final in 2023, "hoped" that the team could make it to the final. He was aware of the mid-table muddle India find themselves in and sounded realistic when he opined that it would be "great" if they could make it to the top two with tough assignments coming up against New Zealand and Australia.

"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," Dravid told JioStar.

India have started their mission well in Sri Lanka. Coming to the island nation, India needed to win eight of their last nine Tests to stay in contention for the final. They have ticked the first win in Galle and are gunning for their second in Colombo. However, tough away Tests against New Zealand and home against Australia await the two-time finalists.

"They started well against Sri Lanka, so that's a good first step. Hopefully, they can keep the guys fit and not have a lot of injuries over the next few months. 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. New Zealand away, always a challenge. Tough team, New Zealand, to play away from home," he added.

India will head to New Zealand without many of their experienced players who were on the trip the last time they visited the nation in early 2020, with only a handful of the current squad members having played there in the red-ball format before. "A lot of the young Indian boys have not played in those conditions, so that's going to be a big challenge. We're missing the experience of Virat [Kohli] and Rohit [Sharma], Ajinkya Rahane and [Cheteshwar] Pujara, these kinds of guys who've probably been there the last time India went. So that will be an interesting series as well," he added.