Australia has reclaimed the top spot in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings after the annual update, replacing India, who they defeated in the ICC World Test Championship final at The Oval last year.
AUSTRALIA BECOMES THE NO.1 RANKED TEST TEAM IN THE ICC ANNUAL RANKING UPDATE. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/rN9EXaRLMB
---Advertisement---— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) May 3, 2024
With 124 rating points, Australia now leads the table, followed closely by India with just four points behind. Meanwhile, England holds the third position with a 15-point gap from India, and South Africa occupies the fourth position with 103 points.
India’s drop in the rankings is primarily attributed to their 2-1 series win in Australia in 2020-21, which has been removed from the rankings. Despite this, the order of teams ranked from third to ninth remains unchanged. Afghanistan and Ireland are yet to play sufficient Tests, while Zimbabwe is excluded as they have played only three Tests over the past three years. To be included in the rankings, teams need to participate in a minimum of eight Tests over three years.
Although Australia has overtaken India in the Test rankings, India maintains its position atop the ODI and T20I rankings after the annual updates, which consider matches completed before May 2023 at 50 percent weight and subsequent matches at 100 percent.
Team India Not Far Off
Despite losing the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final to Australia, India has extended their lead over them from three to six points, maintaining the top position with 122 points. The top 10 rankings remain unchanged, but Ireland has surpassed Zimbabwe to claim the 11th spot.
South Africa, in third place, has narrowed the gap with Australia from eight to four points, while Sri Lanka trails behind England by only two points in fifth place.
In the T20I rankings, Australia has moved ahead of England to claim the second position, trailing India by seven points, with India leading with 264 rating points.
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