One match has been played in each of three test series since I last updated the blog. Australia came back to win the dead rubber in their series against South Africa; New Zealand effected a remarkably rapid dismissal of Pakistan in the final session of the two teams' second game to secure a whitewash; while India completed their second successive defeat of England in a five match series they can now no longer lose (in theory, with two matches still to come, England could escape with a draw, although that would indeed be a rather remarkable case of escapology). A few months ago, Australia, England and Pakistan were all among the teams vying for the position of the number one in the world; now, India seem to be fairly clearly on top, and remakrably, in my world ranking system, Sri Lanka have risen to fourth place, following their walloping of Australia and the subsequent struggles of many of their rivals. Here are rankings in full:
India 164 +12
South Africa 102 -20
Australia 82 +21
Sri Lanka 57
England 44 -12
New Zealand 41 +19
Pakistan 41 -19
West Indies -58
Bangladesh -148
Zimbabwe -325
And here are the offical ICC ratings (which don't yet take account of the India v England series, and which in general are more resillient in the face of recent results:
India 115
England 105
Australia 105 -3
Pakistan 102 -7
South Africa 102 +6
New Zealand 96 +5
Sri Lanka 96
West Indies 69
Bangladesh 65
Zimbabwe 5
Nonetheless, it's safe to say it will be a major surprise if England still hold second place after two more tests against India.
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