Until recently, England had grounds for feeling optimistic about their fortchcoming Ashes series against Australia. But while Australia have just completed a 2-0 defeat of Sri Lanka, England have just lost, badly, the first two (of three) scheduled tests against the lowly rated West Indians, who have played much better than expected, but who have also exposed weaknesses in England's side of all rounders. England haven't blooded a test-class specialist batsman successfully since Joe Root; this suddenly seems a more serious concern than previously. My world rankings currently look like this:
South Africa 207
India 204
England 157 -30
New Zealand 141
Australia 135 +12
Pakistan 80
Sri Lanka 55 -12
West Indies 19 +31
Bangladesh -73
Zimbabwe -252
Ireland -320
Afghanistan -352
They look better in the offical ratings, but the results from the series in the Carribean will only get added in after the final test.
India 116
South Africa 110
England 108
New Zealand 107
Australia 104 +3
Sri Lanka 89 -2
Pakistan 88
West Indies 70
Bangladesh 69
Zimbabwe 13
England now have one match left to try and (partially) redeem themselves, but the West Indies must fancy their chances of a famous "blackwash", many years after the last one. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka must now head to South Aftica, where they face a tough task in trying to turn around their losing run.
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