ICC Test rankings: India cedes top spot for first time since October 2016

Australia cricket team has moved to the top of the Test and T20 International rankings for men while England continue to lead the men's ODI rankings after the annual update carried out on Friday, which eliminates results from 2016-17.
 
How India lost the top spot in ICC Test rankings

India cricket team lost the top spot in the ICC Test rankings to Australia, dropping to third after its stupendous 2016-17 record was eliminated from the annual update as per rules.
 
India yielded the top spot in Test rankings for the first time since October 2016 but continue to lead the ICC World Test Championship, a league comprising six series played by each of the top nine sides.
 
Check World Test championship points table here
 
India dropped in the ladder largely because the record of 12 Tests victories and just one Test defeat in 2016-17 was removed in the latest chart, the ICC said in a statement.
 
Virat Kohli's men had won all five series during that period including against Australia and England. On the other hand, Australia had lost to South Africa as well as to India in the same period.

 
The latest update rates all the matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent.
 
Top three team separated by 2 rating points: A rare occurrence
 
Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place. India are now third with 114 points.
 
With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003. The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.
 
South Africa slumped to sixth place below Sri Lanka
 
South Africa cricket team have suffered the biggest rating fall, which sees them drop below Sri Lanka into sixth place. They had won three series in the period culled, while they have lost eight of their nine Tests since February 2019, playing against Sri Lanka, India and England.

ICC Test Rankings
Ranking	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	Australia	26	3,028	116
2	New Zealand	21	2,406	115
3	India	27	3,085	114
4	England	33	3,466	105
5	Sri Lanka	27	2,454	91
6	South Africa	23	2,076	90
7	Pakistan	16	1,372	86
8	West Indies	18	1,422	79
9	Afghanistan	3	170	57
10	Bangladesh	17	939	55
11	Zimbabwe	8	144	18
12	Ireland	0	0	0

ICC ODI rankings
 
In the ICC men's ODI team rankings, reigning World champions England cricket team (127) have increased its lead over India from six to eight points. New Zealand cricket team remained in third place, three points behind India as the top ten rankings remain unchanged. 
 

ODI rankings
Ranking	Team	Match	Points	Rating points
1	England	38	4,820	127
2	India	49	5,819	119
3	New Zealand	32	3,716	116
4	South Africa	31	3,345	108
5	Australia	33	3,518	107
6	Pakistan	32	3,254	102
7	Bangladesh	34	2,989	88
8	Sri Lanka	39	3,297	85
9	West Indies	43	3,285	76
10	Afghanistan	28	1,549	55
11	Ireland	21	1,039	49
12	Netherlands	5	222	44
13	Oman	12	479	40
14	Zimbabwe	24	935	39
15	Scotland	16	419	26
16	Nepal	9	161	18
17	UAE	15	259	17
18	Namibia	9	152	17
19	United States	14	185	13
20	Papua New Guinea	14	0	0

 
ICC T20 rankings: Plenty of movement
 
In contrast, the updated ICC Men's T20I team rankings see plenty of changes. Australia (278) top the list for the first time since the T20I rankings were introduced in 2011. Pakistan cricket team, who had overtaken New Zealand to reach top position in January 2018 and then spent 27 months there, are now fourth with 260 points.
 
England have moved into second position with 268 points while India are up one place to third, just two points behind.
 
Afghanistan cricket team are down from seventh to tenth while Bulgaria are the biggest gainers, up 12 places to 51st in the 84-country list of teams that played the requisite six matches in the past three years.
 
When the global T20I rankings were launched 12 months ago, there were 80 ranked teams. Since then seven teams have joined the table (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Turkey), while three countries have lost their rankings having played insufficient matches.

T20 International ranking
Ranking	Team	Matches	Points	Rating points
1	Australia	19	5,285	278
2	England	17	4,564	268
3	India	35	9,319	266
4	Pakistan	21	5,470	260
5	South Africa	17	4,380	258
6	New Zealand	23	5,565	242
7	Sri Lanka	23	5,293	230
8	Bangladesh	20	4,583	229
9	West Indies	24	5,499	229
10	Afghanistan	17	3,882	228
11	Zimbabwe	18	3,442	191
12	Ireland	29	5,513	190
13	UAE	23	4,288	186
14	Scotland	17	3,096	182
15	Nepal	23	4,148	180
16	Papua New Guinea	21	3,769	179
17	Netherlands	26	4,618	178
18	Oman	18	3,169	176
19	Namibia	19	2,980	157
20	Singapore	20	2,835	142
21	Canada	15	1,956	130
22	Qatar	23	2,982	130
23	Hong Kong	23	2,727	119
24	Kenya	12	1,389	116
25	Jersey	21	2,423	115
26	Kuwait	16	1,765	110
27	Italy	10	1,100	110
28	Saudi Arabia	9	965	107
29	Denmark	10	975	98
30	Bermuda	13	1,202	92
31	Uganda	11	985	90
32	Malaysia	29	2,557	88
33	Germany	15	1,304	87
34	United States	11	868	79
35	Ghana	10	773	77
36	Botswana	13	934	72
37	Guernsey	12	854	71
38	Austria	8	553	69
39	Nigeria	16	1,064	67
40	Romania	6	399	67
41	Norway	8	499	62
42	Spain	13	766	59
43	Sweden	3	168	56
44	Tanzania	3	167	56
45	Cayman Islands	8	430	54
46	Argentina	12	610	51
47	Philippines	5	241	48
48	Bahrain	9	424	47
49	Vanuatu	15	704	47
50	Belize	5	209	42
51	Bulgaria	5	203	41
52	Hungary	4	162	41
53	Malawi	12	476	40
54	Czech Republic	12	430	36
55	Fiji	3	105	35
56	Peru	9	294	33
57	Panama	5	162	32
58	Luxembourg	8	258	32
59	Costa Rica	4	126	32
60	Japan	4	126	32
61	Samoa	7	216	31
62	Mexico	11	320	29
63	Belgium	6	170	28
64	Portugal	7	173	25
65	Finland	9	204	23
66	Thailand	14	297	21
67	South Korea	4	78	20
68	Mozambique	12	173	14
69	Brazil	9	123	14
70	Bhutan	7	88	13
71	Sierra Leone	5	61	12
72	Maldives	14	138	10
73	Chile	9	85	9
74	Saint Helena	6	55	9
75	Indonesia	4	19	5
76	Myanmar	6	23	4
77	Lesotho	3	0	0
78	Rwanda	3	0	0
79	Swaziland	3	0	0
80	Turkey	5	0	0
81	China	6	0	0
82	Gambia	6	0	0
83	Gibraltar	7	0	0
84	Malta	8	0	0