ICC WTC Final: Five Talking Points After South Africa's Maiden World Title

The wait is over. South Africa are the world champions. After years and years of heartbreak, the Proteas finally managed to win a world title as they defeated Australia in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2025 on Saturday.

The match went back and forth as the bowlers of both the sides breath fire but Aiden Markram's masterful century sealed the deal in the favour of South Africa and they won by five wickets.

Here are the five major talking points after the World Test Championship final 2025.

South Africa's wait ends

Rain, rules, their own underperformance, everything had come in South Africa's way whenever they were near a world title. On Monday, however, they finally broke the jinx. The Proteas had not won an ICC trophy in 27 years and never had they won a world championship. All that is history now. Despite having the greatest of teams and players, South Africa could no go all the way in big tournament, until Temba Bavuma's men finally did.

Commander Bavuma

Forget winning, South Africa were not expected to even be in the final. With nine games remaining in South Africa's WTC campaign, Bavuma was made captain. Since then South Africa have not lost a single Test. They have now won nine, drawn one and no captain ever in the history of Test cricket has had this good a start to his leadership stint.

The 35-year-old has received a lot of hate in the past due to South Africa's complex quota system but the leader that Bavuma is, he has come out of all the talk and delivered whenever his team has demanded.

'King'iso Rabada

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Kagiso Rabada once again proved why he is among the best bowlers of our generation. Rabada took nine wickets in the game and ensured that the mighty Australian batting could not score big. His Test record is insane with 336 wickets in just 71 matches and in the biggest Test of his career, Rabada once again showed why he has the best strike rate for a bowler in the history of the game.

Markram Mania

For all his talent, Aiden Markram has not quite turned up in international cricket as he was expected to when he was in age group cricket. A Test average of 36.5 does not do justice to his talent but in the final, he showed why the Proteas stick with him despite an underwhelming record. Markram hit 136 and made a formidable target of 282 look like a cake walk. South Africa would hope this is the start of his potential turning into performance.

Ageing Australia?

10 of the 11 players on field for Australia are above 30 years of age. Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc are all over 34. Most of them are still going well but the question is for how long will they keep going? A transition phase is around the corner and Australia will have to be mindful of that going into the next WTC cycle.