India Dethrone Australia To Become No.1 Test Team Ahead Of WTC Final

Bhubaneswar: The Men in Blue, led by Rohit Sharma, have been crowned the new No. 1 side in the ICC Men’s Test Rankings after surpassing Australia in the yearly rankings update. Prior to next month’s ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final, India overtook Australia, led by Pat Cummins, after 15 months at the top of the men’s Test Rankings.

The rivalry between Australia and India in Test cricket has grown to be one of the most thrilling in recent memory, and the rankings nicely switch positions in the WTC 2023 Final with the two teams prepared to pen yet another chapter at the “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 ranking update, Australia was ranked first with 121 points, and India was second with 119 points. However, the annual rankings take into account all series finished since May 2020, with series finished before May 2022 weighted at 50% and all series finished after that weighted at 100%.

Australia’s home series victories over Pakistan (2-0) and New Zealand (3-0) in 2019–20 were consequently disregarded, while their 4-0 victory over England in 202–22 has a weighting that has been halved. Australia’s ratings as a result fell from 121 to 116.
India moved up two places from 119 to 121 as a result of the elimination of their 2-0 loss against New Zealand in the 2019–20 season from the rankings.

Meanwhile, India has maintained their top spot in the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings, expanding their lead over England in second place from six to eight points. New Zealand passed South Africa and Pakistan to move up to third place. The biggest ratings increase came from Hong Kong (up three spots to 18th) and the United States (up three spots to 22nd).