Lord's to host 2025 World Test Championship Final

The 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) final will be played at the iconic Lord's cricket ground from June 11 to 15 next year, the International Cricket Council announced on Tuesday.

The ICC has marked June 16 as the reserve day, if required.

"The ICC World Test Championship Final has quickly become one of the most anticipated events in the cricketing calendar and we are pleased to announce the dates for the 2025 edition," said ICC CEO Geoff Allardice in a statement.

The Lord's is hosting the WTC final for the first time. Southampton (2021) and the Oval (2023) were the venues for the previous two editions of WTC Finals.

India featured in both the finals, but lost to New Zealand in the inaugural edition in 2021 and were outclassed by Australia last year.

Currently, Rohit Sharma's India are sitting in pole position ahead of reigning champions Australia.

India will face Australia in an away five-match series later this year in the race to the WTC Final.

However, New Zealand (third), England (fourth), Sri Lanka (fifth), South Africa (sixth) and Bangladesh (seventh) are still in contention for a place in the one-off decider next year.

However, Pakistan suffered a huge setback as Bangladesh inflicted a 0-2 defeat on them in the just-concluded two-match home series.