Halfway through the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle, the points table has settled into a shape that looks increasingly decisive at the top and increasingly chaotic beneath it. Australia have won seven of their first eight matches, giving them a percentage-points-taken figure of 87.50 that puts real daylight between themselves and every other side chasing a place in the 2027 final at The Oval.
Australia’s runaway start
The gap is not subtle. Pat Cummins’s side have converted a run of home and away fixtures into a win rate that few sides in the competition’s short history have matched at this stage of a cycle, and their form has been built on the kind of depth — Starc and Hazlewood sharing the new ball, Lyon controlling the middle overs, a top order anchored by Smith and Labuschagne — that has made Australia close to unbeatable across conditions. Barring a significant collapse over the second half of the cycle, Australia look close to locking in one of the two final berths months in advance.
South Africa and New Zealand keep pace
Behind them, South Africa sit second with a 75.00 percentage points taken, having collected 36 points from four matches, with New Zealand close behind at 72.22 percent. The margin between second and third is thin enough that either side’s results over the coming months could flip the order, and both teams know that the second qualification spot is very much live given how far off the pace the rest of the field remains.
The middle of the table is where the real fight is
Bangladesh currently occupy fourth place, an unusually strong position historically for a side that has often found itself fighting to avoid the bottom of Test rankings tables, while India sit fifth and Sri Lanka sixth — a placing that added direct context to the pair’s recent series opener at Galle. Every match in this bracket carries outsized weight: with the gap to the top two so wide, teams from fourth to seventh are effectively playing for pride and ranking points rather than realistic final qualification, unless Australia or the current second-place side suffer an unexpected slump.
Pakistan and West Indies at the bottom
At the foot of the table, Pakistan improved to 22.22 percent points taken after beating West Indies, while West Indies themselves slipped further down after failing to close out that same series — a result that leaves the Caribbean side facing a difficult run to avoid finishing the cycle in last place. For Pakistan, currently also touring England for a three-Test series, incremental points gains matter less for final qualification than for rebuilding credibility after a difficult recent stretch in the format.
What the second half of the cycle will decide
With the top of the table looking close to settled, the competition for the remainder of the 2025-27 cycle will largely play out beneath Australia: a genuine contest between South Africa and New Zealand for the second final spot, a scramble among Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka to improve their standing before matches run out, and a fight at the bottom between Pakistan and West Indies simply to avoid finishing the cycle with the championship’s worst record. None of it will change who tops the table barring a historic reversal — but the shape of the final at The Oval in June 2027 is still very much undecided.