India Become New No 1 Test Team In ICC Ranking, Dethrone Australia Ahead Of World Test Championships Final

Rohit Sharma’s Team India have been crowned the new No. 1 side in ICC Men’s Test Rankings, with the team leapfrogging over Australia in the annual rankings update. Pat Cummins-led Australia’s reign at the top of the men’s Test Rankings comes to an end after 15 months with India going past the Aussies ahead of next month’s ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final.

India taking on Australia in Test cricket has quickly become one of the most exciting rivalries in recent history and the rankings reversal sets up the WTC 2023 Final perfectly, with the two sides set to write yet another chapter at ‘Ultimate Test’ on June 7 at The Oval in London.

_ New World No.1 _

India dethrone Australia in the annual update of the @MRFWorldwide ICC Men's Test Rankings ahead of the #WTC23 Final _ — ICC (@ICC) May 2, 2023

Prior to the annual rankings update, Australia were at the top with 122 points with India trailing them by three points (119). The annual rankings consider all series completed since May 2020, with series completed before May 2022 weighted at 50 per cent and all subsequent series weighted at 100 percent.

As a result, Australia’s home series wins over Pakistan (2-0) and New Zealand (3-0) in 2019/20 were no longer in consideration, while their 4-0 win over England in 2021/22 has its weighting halved. Consequently, Australia’s ratings dropped from 121 to 116.

For India, their 2-0 defeat against New Zealand in 2019/20 was no longer in consideration for the rankings, thus giving them a two-point boost from 119 to 121.

Australia rose to the summit of the Test rankings under Pat Cummins’s first series as captain as they walloped England 4-0 in the home Ashes in January 2022. A month prior, India themselves were at the top of the rankings before a 2-0 loss to South Africa saw them lose top spot.

However, ahead of the WTC 2023 Final, Team India have a few injury concerns. Lucknow Super Giants duo of KL Rahul and Jaydev Unadkat got injured on Monday. While KL Rahul has suffered a hip flexor injury during the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Lucknow, Unadkat injured his shoulder while bowling in the nets ahead of the match.

In the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings, India have consolidated their position at the top, increasing their lead over second-placed England from six to eight points. New Zealand have overtaken Pakistan and South Africa to third position. The biggest ratings jumps are by Hong Kong (up three places to 18th) and USA (up three places to 22nd). 

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat