In this guide
Each Test contributes its own resultWhy the table uses a percentageA draw is not a tieFollow day, match and series separatelyThe ICC World Test Championship places selected bilateral Test series into a wider championship cycle. A programme can therefore tell two stories at once: the score in the current series and the team’s position in the championship table.
For the 2025–2027 cycle, each team plays six championship series, three at home and three away. The leading two teams in the percentage table progress to the final. It is the ranking percentage, rather than the raw points total alone, that determines their position.
Each Test contributes its own result
A win earns 12 championship points, a tie six and a draw four. A series can contain several Tests, so winning the series does not replace the individual match results with a single championship award. The series score and championship points are related but different summaries.
Why the table uses a percentage
The percentage is the points earned divided by the points available from the Tests counted, multiplied by 100. Different numbers of completed matches can produce different raw totals. Slow-over-rate deductions also affect the points ledger, so an official table may not match a simple unadjusted win-and-draw calculation.
| Test outcome | Points before deductions |
|---|---|
| Win | 12 |
| Tie | 6 |
| Draw | 4 |
| Loss | 0 |
A draw is not a tie
A tied Test and a drawn Test have different sporting meanings and different championship points. Do not merge those labels in a watchlist or a result summary. A programme describing a drawn match is not saying that it ended with the conditions of a tied Test.
Follow day, match and series separately
Day three of the second Test is a session within a match within a series. None of those labels is the championship final. Preserve all three when organising longer recordings, and use the cycle dates to locate their wider table context. A daily highlights programme may end before the match itself has produced any championship points.