India ( Commonwealth) _ The Men in Blue took over Australia in the most recent rankings published by the global cricket governing body, International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday, taking the top place in the ICC Test rankings one day after India thrashed England in Dharamsala to clinch the five-match series 4-1.India, who is presently atop the World Test Championship (WTC) rankings, has risen to the top of the ICC rankings in all three game formats of the cricket.
The top of the leaderboard will continue to belong to Rohit Sharma’s team, regardless of the outcome of the second Test between Australia and New Zealand, which is presently taking place in Christchurch.
Australia, the reigning World Test Championship winners, secured a 172-run victory in Wellington to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series. With 122 rating points, India leads Australia by five points in the Test rankings. England is just behind them in third place with 111 rating points.
India leads Australia by a narrow margin in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), with 121 rating points. India leads the T20Is with 266 rating points, followed by England (256).From September 2023 until January 2024, India was the top-ranked Test team in the world. However, following a tie in their away series against South Africa, they dropped to second place. Following their home victory in the three-Test series against Pakistan, Australia surpassed India to take the top spot in the Test rankings.
India lost their opening Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs in their five-Test series against England. However, the home team won the next four Test matches after mounting a strong comeback. Their triumphs at Ranchi, Dharamsala, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, and other locations enabled them to take the top spot in the Test rankings back.
India, headed by Rohit Sharma, is currently leading the World Test Championship 2023–25 organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and has demonstrated their power and supremacy by winning a convincing series against England.
With a busy 2024 season that includes the IPL, T20 World Cup, and other competitions, it’s pretty obvious that other teams don’t have many matches left to dethrone India from the top 2, and a hat-trick of WTC Finals is on the line for team India. The Indians won the series 4-1 and now have 74 points.
After a miserable voyage to India, the English team’s journey to the final is almost over. They will feel extremely fortunate to have won at least one match, as Ben Stokes’ team’s victory in the first Test was preserved by Ollie Pope’s incredible 196. Otherwise, it would have been a complete rout.
After the India vs. England series ended, there is just one Test series left until the Indian Premier League 2024 begins: Australia’s tour of New Zealand, where the Trans-Tasman rivals are facing off in the second Test. With a 1-0 lead in the Test series, Australia is well-positioned to win the second Test match and seal the series 2-0.
With the pitch not looking like it will be anti-batting friendly in the fourth innings, Australia should be happy with anything less than 300. Given the present form of all nine teams in the WTC, a repeat final between Australia and India is likely given their respective styles of fearless cricketing and easy dominance over opponents.
Prior to the game, Australia’s victory against New Zealand in the opening Test of their series had sent India to the top of the WTC standings. After winning on Saturday, India’s lead was further cemented; they now have a PCT of 68.15 after six victories in nine games.
For the 12 teams who play Test cricket, the International Cricket Council maintains an international rankings system called the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings (previously known as the ICC Test Championship). Without taking into account home or away status, the rankings are based on international matches that are otherwise played as part of the normal Test cricket schedule.
Following each Test series, the two participating teams are awarded points according to a mathematical formula that takes into account both teams’ prior ratings as well as the series’ outcome. A “rating” is calculated by dividing each team’s total points from games played during the previous three to four years by the number of games and series played overall.
Before the ICC World Test Championship was established, the top-ranked Test team received the ICC Test Championship mace. The mace was relocated every time a new team rose to the top of the rating list between 2002 and 2019. Each year on April 1st, the team with the highest rating also received a monetary award.
