Heartbreak for India as Pat Cummins' Australia snatch No.1 Test ranking

Pat Cummins' Test World Champions Australia have overtaken runners-up of the last two World Test Championship finals, India, in the latest Men's Test team rankings following an annual update.

The latest Test cricket rankings table was updated earlier today on Friday with respect to Australia's thumping 206-run victory over India at the 2023 WTC final. Since then, both the teams have played 3 Test series respectively and have also registered similar results.

While Australia won 2 series against Pakistan and New Zealand, they drew one against the West Indies. India on the other hand most recently won a 5-match Test series against England by 4-1 after drawing 1-1 in South Africa and winning 1-0 in West Indies.

Australia takes 4-point lead over India in the latest Test Rankings 

The Men's Test team rankings are formulated by the ICC with respect to the closing of the previous WTC cycle in May 2021. Teams that have performed well since then get higher rankings while teams with poor performances go down below the table. Match results from May 2021 to May 2023 have a 50% weightage whereas results after May 2023 have 100% weightage.    

In that regard, Australia have jumped 4 points ahead of India who are placed in the second spot. The Aussies currently stand at 3715 points with a rating of 124. In the ICC Test rankings, points do not have much importance as ratings have a higher regard. 

Thus Australia might be miles ahead of other Test-playing nations in the rankings but they are actually just 4 points away from India who have a rating of 120. The top two nations in the rankings will be locking horns with each other in the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar trophy which will include a 5-match Test series from November to January. 

The 1st Test is slated to start on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth while the 2nd Test will commence on 6th December in Adelaide Oval. The 3rd Test match will be a historic one as the Aussies will aim to avenge their Gabba Test loss in 2021 with the match commencing on 14th of December. 

The penultimate Test match will be a Boxing Day Test from 26th December at the iconic Melbourne Cricket ground with the final match taking place on 3rd January at Sydney. 

It will be an exciting Test series that might as well decide which teams are going to participate in the 3rd WTC final in the summer of 2025 in England. 

ICC Test Rankings table as of May 3rd, 2024

The most recent upcoming Test series is going to take place between England and the West Indies from July 10 onwards with the 1st Test taking place in Lord's.