WTC Final 2025 All you need to know: Date, teams, venue

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WTC Final 2025 All you need to know: Date, teams, venue

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The WTC final between defending champion Australia and South Africa begins on 11 June. Here’s all you need to know about the key encounter:

When and where is the 2025 WTC Final happening?

Venue: Lord’s Cricket Ground, London


Date: Starts June 11, 2025

Reserve Day: June 16, 2025 (used only if significant time is lost)

Which teams are playing the 2025 World Test Championship Final?

Australia – defending champion, playing its second WTC Final

South Africa – making its first-ever WTC Final appearance

How can I watch the WTC Final in Australia and India?

In Australia

Platform: Prime Video (Amazon)

Coverage: Exclusive broadcast rights for ICC events (2024–2027)

Access: Free for existing Prime members or via 30-day free trial

In India

Fans can watch the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2025 live on the Star Sports Network. They can also stream the match online through Disney+ Hotstar. Commentary will be available in English, Hindi, and other regional languages on the Star Sports Network.



Key storylines before the final?

Australia:

Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood return from injury

Selection dilemma in bowling and middle order

South Africa:

Seven straight Test wins

Strong squad despite earlier sending a B-team to NZ

Kagiso Rabada cleared after suspension

Temba Bavuma and David Bedingham return from injury

What’s the head-to-head record at Lord’s?

Australia: Unbeaten in last 3 Tests at Lord’s since 2015

South Africa: Won 2 of last 3 Tests at Lord’s, including in 2022

What happens if the match ends in a draw or is abandoned?

Outcome: Joint winners — both Australia and South Africa

Applies to ties, draws, or abandoned games

Who’s officiating?

New Zealand’s Chris Gaffaney and England’s Richard Illingworth will officiate back-to-back World Test Championship finals, having also stood in the 2023 decider. Richard Kettleborough returns as third umpire, while India’s Nitin Menon makes his WTC final debut as fourth umpire.

What ball will be used?

The Dukes ball will once again be in use at Lord’s, as it was for the previous WTC finals in Southampton (2021) and The Oval (2023).

What are the squads?

Australia

Squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster. Travelling reserve: Brendan Doggett

South Africa

Squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

[The Founder]

Pat Cummins: Happy to bat first. Looks like a good wicket with a few clouds. Prep wise it has been unreal, 15 guys working very hard for that title. You get used to it the more you are playing, we have had about 10 days prep and we are ready. Doesn't feel like any extra pressure. WE've been here before and we've won it.
Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma(c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne(w), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
Australia (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Beau Webster, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Temba Bavuma: Will have a bowl first looking at the overhead conditions. Too late to change the team, we have selected the best combination. All 15 of us are confident. It is a massive final, it should be a spectacle out here.
South Africa have won the toss and have opted to field
Toss time! Cummins to call - he says HEADS, it is a TAIL
The South African team are done with the warm-ups and they huddle up. Skipper Temba Bavuma giving a spirited team talk to the rest of his troops. They would truly believe that they can create history! Plenty of South African supporters in the ground, pings Telford Vice from Lord's. It is a big occasion for the rainbow nation!
Australia - Pat Cummins’ clutch closure at Edgbaston and Bairstow strolling out his crease at Lord’s gave Australia a 2-0 lead to sullen the Bazball hype in 2023. But England stormed back with the Stuart Broad bail-switcheroo in his parting Test to level the series. Then came a 3-0 dismantling of Pakistan as David Warner walked off onto the Sydney sunset. Up next was that Shamar Joseph Test match, as Australia were rattled by pace to draw a home series against West Indies. A clean sweep over New Zealand followed with Carey and Cummins coming up clutch again. Then the home Tests to India where they were Bumrah’d in the first Test, but they fought back with Travis Head’s ton and Konstas the Indian kryptonite, while Boland and Starc nicked off the Indian batters for fun. The BGT triumph was capped off later with a Lankan lambast, as Lyon, Kuhnemann and Murphy picked wickets for fun, while Khawaja got back amongst the runs. They’ve bossed their way through this cycle, outplaying most and outwitting a few to rightly challenge for the mace once again.
South Africa - A superlative Dean Elgar century in his penultimate Test gave them a winning start against India, but they were bamboozled on a spicy Cape Town pitch shortly after for the series to be squared. Then came the ‘infamous’ Neil Brand leg Protean side that travelled to New Zealand in the midst of the 2024 SA20, practically surrendering a series. A feisty win in the Caribbean followed with Markram’s battling fifty, and then a sub-continent clean sweep over Bangladesh thanks to Maharaj and Muthusamy. Then came Temba leading from the front against Sri Lanka for a home triumph, followed by an uncharacteristic Rabada and Jansen rearguard against Pakistan to send the Proteas towards the promised land. Fewer games? Yes! Easier fixtures? Maybe. But this South African team could only win what’s in front of them, and they have authentically earned their right now to be in this final!
Road to the final
A nice cloudy morning here at Lord’s, pleasant cricket playing weather and a full house with plenty of travelling supporters. It should be a cracker of a contest between two very proficient pace bowling attacks, who also boast a world class spinner. It should be a cracker of a contest between two slightly faltering batting units but with enough talismanic figures in there to single-handedly turn games. It should be a cracker of a contest between two well matched sides playing in neutral conditions that benefit each other. The ‘home of cricket’ is ready to host the most important Test match of the year for the first time in its history! Let’s crack on…
In the way of this South African dream is cricket’s golden eyed boy, the lad who enjoys to ‘silence’ his critics leading arguably the most dominant team going around currently in world cricket. Pat Cummins’ Australia have ushered in a new era of discreet dominance in the red ball game, which has spilled over to the other formats as well. They meticulously broke down India in the previous WTC final, then followed that up a few months later in the ODI World Cup final while swatting aside most of their opponents too in bi-lateral games. Australia haven’t dropped a series in this WTC campaign, getting to successive finals almost on a canter. They have a settled, experienced batting line-up, a fearsome quartet of bowlers and most importantly - an ineffable hunger to win and be successful on the big stage.
After decades and decades of grey skies and turbulent climate, the rainbow nation stands on the cusp of a moment of eternal sunshine. Temba Bavuma’s team is potentially five days away from scripting one of the most famous sporting wins in their nation’s history, a win that will have far reaching consequences for the cricketing landscape of South Africa. This WTC final comes at a crucial crossroads for the Proteas, at a time where their players are retiring like houseflies in the quest of franchise riches, when their Test calendar is being cut short to accommodate for what can often feel like an overkill of T20 cricket. So Temba, Aiden, Kagiso and the rest of these Protean boys have a glorious opportunity to go out there at Lord’s today and proving once and for all that national pride, and the valour of winning in Whites is far greater than anything that the extravagance of franchise cricket can ever buy. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika!
8:45 AM Local Time: Bologna did it for the first time in 51 years, Newcastle United did it for the first time in 56 years, Tottenham Hotspurs did it for the first time in 41 years and Paris Saint-Germain did it for the first time in their history. In our sport, the GMR group got their maiden trophy through Dubai Capitals in 2025, and more recently and more belovedly, RCB did it for the first time in 18 years. South Africa, 2025? It’s been a year where trophy jinxes are being broken, where the underdogs are celebrating the loudest and maybe, just maybe it is the year that South Africa finally brush aside their tag of ‘chokers.’
Preview by Bharat Sundaresan

There's this earnestness to everything Temba Bavuma does as a cricketer. It comes through even more when you hear him speak in a press conference. He's measured. He's contemplative. He's patient. Often, he is also emotional.

And he certainly didn't hold back on his emotions as he addressed the possibility of becoming the first South African captain to lead his country to a proper world title (the 1998 ICC Knockouts notwithstanding).

Especially when he started talking about how even getting to Lord's for this big finale was part of his "story" and his team's "story". If anything, he must have brought up the "story" at least a dozen times as he spoke about South Africa's chances in the World Test Championship Final that kicks off at Lord's on Wednesday. It was difficult not to be moved by how much it seemed to move him. Even if many have questioned his team's progress to the final along with their credentials as a Test team to get to this stage. "Who did they beat after all?" being an unavoidable narrative that's followed their progress to this stage.

The fact is that now they know who they'll have to beat to shut everyone up. A team that has historically been a bugbear for them in matches that matter. A team that has perennially managed to get the better of them when it matters most.

Not to forget their own well-publicised issues with finals and knockout matches across eras and across decades. But there's more. If the South Africans weren't carrying the pressure and baggage of their own legacy and history into the final against Australia, there's more riding on it than Bavuma and his team completing their story.

There's a bigger narrative at play. For, in many ways, South Africa will also be going in to bat for the rest of the Test nations around the world who like them struggle to keep up with the financial demands of hosting and playing the traditional format. A South African win here could well trigger some interesting conversations around what could lie ahead for teams that are "not as economically strong as the other nations". At a time, more importantly, when there's so much talk of future schedules being designed around the needs of certain nations, and also the potential of divisions.

Not that Bavuma or his players will currently be thinking about that larger narrative. But it could well have a bearing on how things pan out over the next few days at Lord's.

Whether they know it or not, South Africa for once aren't just playing for themselves. Maybe that's what they need to get over the stigma of not being able to get over the final hurdle.

As for Australia, it's a continuation of the rise of the Pat Cummins era, as they try to add another jewel to their burgeoning crown. Two years on from having won the WTC for the first time, they are looking to go back-to-back with a team that's more or less the same as 2023, but if anything hungrier than even they were back then. Though never emotional, Cummins is always pretty candid with what he thinks of the challenge ahead of him, and so are his team.

When: World Test Championship (WTC) Final, South Africa v Australia, June 11-16, 2025, 10:30 hrs Local Time, 19:30 AEST, 15:00 hrs IST

Where: Lord's, London

What to expect: It's London in June. So there is some weather around. What has otherwise been a rather dry summer has given way to a lot of rain around the country over the last week or so. The last few days leading into the final though have been pretty clear, allowing the two teams to get ample practice at Lord's. And weather will play a big part in how the cricket pans out as well, considering the surface in the middle looks pretty dry for this time of the year. More a brownish tinge with no green on it. That should ideally mean a track with runs on it, but with two high-quality bowling attacks on offer, even the chance of some weather around should be enough to make this contest more even than expected.

Team News

South Africa

It's generally easy to figure out who's playing and who's not based on the bowlers you see going through their routines on the centre square at Lord's in the lead-up to a Test. And once it was Lungi Ngidi getting all the attention in the middle from bowling consultant Stuart Broad on Monday, the identity of South Africa's third seamer was pretty evident. With the coaching staff keen to have Tristan Stubbs in the middle, the only option left for them was to slot all-rounder Wiaan Mulder in at No 3 to extend their batting, giving their lower-order a pretty strong feel.

Playing XI: Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

Australia

Australia will have two batters in the top order batting out of positions. Marnus Labuschagne was revealed as the new Test opener, though only for this Test currently, while Cameron Green makes his Test return at No 3, a position he's batted in only once in first-class cricket. Labuschagne has of course batted the house down facing the new-ball ever since arriving in England, both at Beckenham and at Lord's. His promotion to the top also allows the Aussies to stick with Beau Webster at No 6, though Alex Carey could slot in ahead of him in the batting order, and thereby giving them a fifth bowling option.

The only other change in Australia's playing XI from the WTC final in 2023, ironically, is Josh Hazlewood replacing Scott Boland as the third seamer. Hazlewood who'd been recovering from a niggle during the IPL, went through his fitness routines in London, building up from 5 overs at 80 per cent on Saturday to nearly 17 overs on Sunday at Lord's to finalise his selection, on a ground where he's tasted a lot of success in the past.

Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Did you know?

- South Africa are on a seven-match winning streak, their second-longest in Test cricket. They had a nine-game winning run between March 2002 and May 2003.

- Australia have lost just two (2009 and 2013) out of the 23 Tests they have played at Lord's post World War II. They've won 12 while nine ended in draws.

- Since the start of English summer 2022, Lord's has had an average runs/wicket ratio of 28.72 in six Tests, the lowest among the six England venues.

What they said:

"This is the ultimate form of cricket. Just bringing that focus back to red ball cricket. It could change the landscape of cricket in South Africa." - Lungi Ngidion what a win at Lord's could do for South African cricket.

"There are some guys where you generally say you've done nothing wrong, don't change a thing, and that's Scott and he's just really unfortunate to miss out." - Pat Cummins on taking the call to leave Boland out for Hazlewood.
Squads:
Australia Squad: Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Matthew Kuhnemann
South Africa Squad: Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma(c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Dane Paterson, Senuran Muthusamy, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Corbin Bosch