Normality has been restored with the last two test matches to have been completed. That is to say, England beat the West Indies (who had surprsingly come from behind to level the two teams's three match series); and Australia won their second game in Bangladesh, to draw that series having lost the first game. Still, Banglasdesh's progress should be noted: they've now drawn series against both England and Australia within a year. My cricket ratings now look as follows:
India 212 (+102)
Australia 93 +7 (0)
South Africa 89 (+14)
England 72 +10 (-17)
New Zealand 53 (+3)
Pakistan 8 (-91)
Sri Lanka -18 (-71)
West Indies -58 -10 (+9)
Bangladesh -122 -6 (+50)
Zimbabwe -328 (-8)
The numbers in brackets, incidentally, are the changes over the course of the past year. The story of the past year has been India's dominance (albeit mostly acheived at home); Bangladesh's aforementioned improvment, and the failure of Pakistan to capitalise on their draw in England last summer and of Sri Lanka on their home win over Australia at around the same time. The really interesting test will be to see how India do when they next venture further afield.
The offical ICC rankings don't look so different:
India 125
South Africa 110
England 105
New Zealand 97
Australia 97 -3
Pakistan 93
Sri Lanka 90
West Indies 75
Bangladesh 74 +5
Zimbabwe 0
The immediate adjustments are different (i.e. Australia are up in my ratings but down in the official ones) because the ICC ratings are adjusted once per season, whereas my ratings are adjusted each game. The pecking order is also similar, except for the fact that the ICC ratings are harsher on Australia than mine. As an Englishman, I'm hoping the ICC have it right ahead of this winter's Ashes series. Before that, test cricket resumes when Sri Lanka visit the U.A.E, (where Pakistan will host) early next month.
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