India were recently whitewashed at home by New Zealand, the sort of thing that just doesn't happen. But they've bounced right back, winning the first game on their tour of Australia. Less suprisingly, West Indies have just won at home against Bangladesh. My ratings now look like this:
Meanwhile the official ratings have just incorporated the previous results from India, although they give New Zealand a little less credit than mine do:
To put this into context, Australia, England, and India have been the top three (although not consistently in that order) in the ratings since September 2022; and India have never been ranked so low since I started compiling these ratings in 2016.
The official ratings tend to be slower to adjust, and at the time of writing have only incorporated the results from Bangladesh, so there is less to note as yet:
England's recent tour of Pakistan produced some remarkable happenings: first, England won the first test by an innings after conceding 550 first time in the field. Then, two bowlers drafted into the Pakistan side for tests two and three took an astonishing 39 wickets between them to win the series. Meanwhile, New Zealand just beaten India twice in two games, a result few would surely have predicted. Less surprisingly, South Africa have just won their first game in Bangladesh. My world ratings now look like this:
Incorporating the results from Pakistan, the official ratings now look as follows:
Less than a week ago, Pakistan batted first, scored 550, and lost by an innings to England, an extraordinary result and the team's sixth straight home defeat. But they have bounced back, winning the second test, and with a third test still to play, now have a chance to win the series. At the same time as Pakistan's loss, New Zealand were also losing (on their tour of India) but have also recovered to win, in spite of the fact that after a humiliating first innings collapase, India scored over 10 times as many runs in their second effort. The effect of these matches on my rankings is as follows:
Pakistan have been on a terrible run of results recently, but having scored 550 against England, they might finally have thought this was coming to an end. Astonishingly, they lost by an innings. My ratings now look as follows:
Meanwhile, the official rankings have now incorporated India's recent series win over Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka's similar (but somewhat less unsurprising) win over New Zealand:
Two recent series have just ended with 2-0 home victories: Sri Lanka seeing off New Zealand, and, more predictably, India beating Bangladesh. My world ratings now look like this, with Sri Laka leapfrogging New Zealand as a result:
