Indian National Cricket Team Drop to the Fifth Spot in the Expanded ICC T20I Team Rankings

Indian National Cricket Team have slipped three places to sit in the fifth spot in the latest released ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings of 80 teams revealed by the International Cricket Council. On the other hand, Pakistan have strengthened their hold at the top of the table which their consistent performances in this format.

The apex body; meanwhile, released an extended table, who will now be able to gauge their progress in a format recognised by the world body as the vehicle for the growth of the game. The Men in Greens currently find themselves at the pinnacle position with 286 points. The next four sides are separated from each other by a margin of only three points – South Africa (262), England and Australia at 261 while Indian National Cricket Team occupy the fifth spot with 260 points.

The Proteas and the Men in Blues have swapped places two and five in the expanded table, whose launch coincides with the annual rankings update in which series results from 2015-16 have not been included, and outcomes from 2016-17 and 2017-18 are weighted at 50 per cent. Other significant changes in the table were Afghanistan and Sri Lanka moving up once places each to seventh and eighth place respectively while Windies slipped to the ninth spot.

Meanwhile, teams like Austria, Botswana, Luxembourg and Mozambique are among the sides figuring in the first men’s T20I ranking table that features all Members meeting the criteria of having played six matches against other ICC members since May 2016. Significantly, Nepal have jumped up three places to sit at 11th while Namibia occupy the 20th position.

Qualification for ICC T20I World Cup underway

In other news, the qualification process for the ICC men’s T20 World Cup have already begun. The qualifiers will include 58 matches across five regional finals. Papua New Guinea held the first final last month while the Africa final will be in Uganda (19-24 May), the Europe final in Guernsey (15-19 June), the Asia final in Singapore (22-28 July) and the Americas final in the USA (19-25 August) are still to come.

Six of these teams will join hosts UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Zimbabwe in the global qualifier to progress to the main tournament.