World Test Championship: Australia overtake India as ICC alters ranking system

Tags: Australia, India, ICC rankings

Published on: Nov 20, 2020

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced that the finalists for the inaugural World Test Championship will be decided on the basis of percentage of points earned by each side. The change to the ranking system was made following a recommendation by the ICC Cricket Committee, which is led by former India captain Anil Kumble.

With the new system being implemented, Australia, who were behind India in the rankings, overtook Virat Kohli’s men in the points table. Australia have 296 points from three series while India have 360 points after four series. However, if one looks at percentage points, Australia's have 82.2 while India’s percentage point stands at 75.0.

England and New Zealand are on third and fourth respectively with 60.8 and 50.0 percentage points.

"The Board approved a recommendation from the ICC Cricket Committee, headed by Anil Kumble, to change the competition terms for the event to determine how series affected by the global pandemic are accounted for on the points table," the ICC said in a press release.

"Both the Cricket Committee and Chief Executives Committee supported the approach of ranking teams based on completed matches and points earned as this reflects their performance and doesn't disadvantage teams that have been unable to compete all of their matches though no fault of their own," Manu Sawhney, ICC Chief Executive, said in an official statement.

"We explored a whole range of options, but our members felt strongly that we should proceed as planned with the first-ever World Test Championship Final in June next year," he added.

The ICC also confirmed that the 2022 ICC Women's T20 World Cup has been postponed to 9-26 February, 2023.

India’s tour of Australia will kick-off with the first of the three ODIs on November 27. The Test series will begin on December 17 at Adelaide. Indian captain Virat Kohli will return to India after the Test for the birth of his first child.

--Renin Wilben

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