After a continuous hardwork of two years, two deserving teams are finally ready to clash against each other in the World Test Championship Final from the 11th of June. South Africa and Australia have rightfully earned their spot in the Final of the toughest and the original format of the game and thus would be competing for the trophy at Lord's, London. The Mecca of Cricket The ground of Lord's in London is referred to as the Home of Cricket and perfectly so. The game of cricket was first played in England and due to the ground's significant role in the sport's history, it received the huge title. Lord's is also home to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the body that governs the laws of the game. It's the dream of every aspiring cricketer to step foot inside the Lord's stadium and perform in front of the MCC members and the great crowd witnessing the match. Every cricket fan also wishes to watch a historic match at the iconic ground. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ICC (@icc) The Clash of the Big Guns This will be the third WTC Final since it was inaugurated by the ICC in 2019. The tournament is played in a cycle of two years with the Final being organised at the end of every cycle, which is every alternate year. While New Zealand won the inaugural tournament in 2021 at Southampton, Australia managed to get their hands on the trophy in 2023 at the Oval. As we all know, both Australia and South Africa have been the powerhouses of test cricket over the past two decades and the fans have witnessed some epic encounters between the two of them. While it's the second ICC WTC Final for the Aussies (having already won one), the Proteas would be setting foot for the first time in the highly anticipated tournament's final. Also Read: WTC Final 2025: What happens if rain washes out Australia vs South Africa clash? Both the teams have been lucky enough to keep their key players free from any sort of injuries before the start of the match. It wouldn't be very wrong to say that the kangaroos would be starting as the favourites against their rivals as they are the defending champions of the tournament and are proven to perform better under pressure situations. Meanwhile the Proteas have a long history of missing out on crucial situations and matches which has resulted in them falling short of major trophies, multiple times. But one needs to keep in mind that it's a massive stage and opportunity. If the South African pacers manage to get some help from the English conditions, they can prove to be quite deadly for the Aussie batters, making them dance to their tunes. It would be really intriguing to see what does the team winning the toss, decides to do first- bowl and make the most of the English conditions or bat and put up a big total on the scoreboard. The Proteas will be led by Temba Bavuma who interestingly, has never lost even a single test match while leading the side. On the other hand, Australian skipper Pat Cummins has already had an amazing run as the captain of this Aussie side, having won the ICC World Cup, ICC WTC, Border- Gavaskar Trophy and also retained the Ashes in England. It would be fascinating to see which leader takes his team over the line this time. The Playing XIs A day before the start of the match, both the teams have revealed their respective playing XI. Some key decisions in the Australian side were- pushing Marnus Labuschagne up the order to open the batting alongside the experienced Usman Khawaja, the exclusion of Scott Boland and the inclusion of both Beau Webster and Cameron Green. Green will be playing his first match after recovering from injury. The Proteas have decided to go ahead with a settled playing XI without doing much experiments. However one surprising thing could be the decision to play only four frontline bowlers and having Wiaan Mulder at no. 3, excluding both Dane Paterson and Corbin Bosch. Both the teams have a high quality bowling lineup while the batting abilities extending upto no. 9/10. South Africa Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (c), Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi Australia Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.