Pakistan, England eye progress in ICC Test rankings

Pakistan and England will be aiming to make progress in the MRF Tyres International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Test rankings as they revive their campaign in the World Test Championship from Wednesday.

Both Captain Azhar Ali and Vice-captain Babar Azam will be limelight as they will compete against England, who came from behind to clinch three-match series against West Indies last month.

Babar, who has become one of the brightest prospect of the game in recent years, will be aiming to cement his legacy by reaching the top of Test batsmen rankings. He needs to score 450 runs in six innings in order to dethrone Steve Smith from the top spot.

Meanwhile, Azhar, presently 27th among batsmen, will be hoping to regain the form that lifted him to sixth in December 2016.

Asad Shafiq (18th) and Shan Masood (33rd) are other Pakistan batsmen to have enjoyed higher rankings in the past but will have to contend with a sharp bowling attack in order to move up again.

Fast bowler Mohammad Abbas (13th) and experienced leg-spinner Yasir Shah (24th), who have in the past, been ranked third and first, respectively, and left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (32nd) are other Pakistan players to watch.

For England, Stokes overtook West Indies captain Jason Holder from the top of the all-rounders’ list during their last series and formerly top-ranked Broad rose to third position in the bowlers’ list, currently led by Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins.

Stokes is also England’s top-ranked batsman in fourth position, with captain Joe Root (ninth) and opener Rory Burns (17th) their next batsmen on the list. Dom Sibley (35th), Jos Buttler (44th) and Ollie Pope (46th) get a chance to build on recent progress in home conditions, as do fast bowlers Mark Wood, Sam Curran and Jofra Archer, ranked close to each other from 36th to 39th positions.

In the WTC points table, England moved up to third position after winning the series against West Indies and could potentially leapfrog Australia to second place, while Pakistan have the chance of overtaking New Zealand to fourth position.

Apart from the 2-1 win over the West Indies, England drew a five-match series against Australia 2-2 and won a four-match series against South Africa 3-1.

Pakistan lost both matches of a two-Test series to Australia, beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in a two-match series and won their first match against Bangladesh at home, with another Test due on a subsequent leg postponed due to Covid-19.

Each series of the WTC is worth 120 points, distributed evenly over the number of matches in a series. The points range from 60 for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series.