April 7, 2009
India now the second best Test teamM J Manohar Rao, Srinivas Bhogle
After defeating New Zealand in New Zealand, India (63.76) have edged past South Africa (63.15) to gain the second place in the Rediff Test Rankings.
Australia (78.07) continue to top the rankings table. The table also shows how far Australia, India and South Africa have broken away from other Test playing teams.
The latest Rediff Test Rankings appear in Table A.
Check ICC Test rankings
| Country |
Performance index (RBI) |
Diff: 23.3.09 -> 7.4.09 |
Rank
|
| Australia |
78.07 |
-0.01 |
1 |
| India |
63.76 |
+3.09 |
2 |
| South Africa |
63.15 |
+0.15 |
3 |
| England |
49.55 |
-0.22 |
4 |
| Sri
Lanka |
42.35 |
+0.28 |
5 |
| Pakistan |
40.64 |
+0.10 |
6 |
| New
Zealand |
34.04 |
-3.45 |
7 |
| West
Indies |
28.76 |
+0.10 |
8 |
| Zimbabwe |
11.67 |
-0.19 |
9 |
| Bangladesh |
5.57 |
+0.16 |
10 |
The current Reliance Mobile ICC Test rankings (as on April 7, 2009) are: Australia (128), South Africa (119), India (117), Sri Lanka (108), Pakistan (100), England (98), West Indies (89), New Zealand (82), Zimbabwe (12?) and Bangladesh (0).
India therefore continue to be third in these 'official' ICC rankings; in fact, India's points have dropped from 118 to 117 even after winning the series so comprehensively! This must seem strange, but this unusual situation arises chiefly because the ICC rankings ignore the home-away situation.
Given the big difference in points between India and New Zealand, the ICC scheme reckoned that big underdogs New Zealand actually did rather well to hold the series loss to just 1-0 -- that's also why New Zealand's points went up from 81 to 82 despite the defeat. Sadly, this argument doesn't take into account how much harder it is for a Gautam Gambhir to move from Ferozshah Kotla to Basin Reserve and score what should have been a match winning century.
The current home-away points tally of Test-playing teams is shown
in Table B.
-- How the
rankings work...
| TABLE B: Test
Score Card (as on April 7, 2009) |
|
A W A Y |
| Aus |
Ban |
Eng |
Ind |
NZ |
Pak |
RSA |
SL |
WI |
Zim |
H
O
M
E |
Australia |
|
2 / 2
2 / 2
|
2 / 5
5 / 5
|
1 / 4
2.5 / 4
|
2.5 / 3
2 / 2
|
3 / 3
3 / 3
|
2 / 3
1 / 3
|
3 / 3
2 / 2 |
2.5/3
3 / 3
|
1 / 1
2 / 2 |
| Bangladesh |
0 / 2
0 / 2
|
|
0 / 2
0 / 2
|
-
0.5 / 2
|
0 / 2
0.5 / 2
|
0 / 3
0 / 2
|
0 / 2
0 / 2
|
0 / 3
0 / 2
|
0.5 / 2
0 / 2
|
0.5 / 2
1.5 / 2
|
| England |
0 / 5
3 / 5
|
2 / 2
2 / 2
|
|
0.5 / 2
1 / 3
|
2 / 3
2.5/3
|
0.5 / 3
3.5 / 4
|
3 / 5
1.5 / 4
|
1 / 3
1.5 / 3 |
2 / 5
3.5 / 4
|
1 / 2
2 / 2
|
| India |
1.5 / 4
3 / 4
|
1.5 / 2
-
|
2 / 3
1.5 / 2 |
|
2 / 3
1 / 2
|
1 / 3
2 / 3
|
1 / 3
1.5 / 3
|
1 / 3
2.5 / 3
|
2.5 / 4
2.5 / 3 |
2 / 2
2 / 2
|
| New Zealand |
0 / 2
0.5 / 3
|
1.5 / 2
2 / 2
|
0.5/3
1 / 3
|
1 / 2
1 / 3
|
|
0 / 1
0.5 / 2
|
0 / 2
1.5 / 3
|
1 / 2
1 / 2
|
1.5 / 2
1 / 2
|
2 / 2
0.5 / 1
|
| Pakistan |
0 / 3
0 / 3
|
2 / 2
3 / 3
|
0.5 / 4
2.5 / 3
|
1 / 3
2 / 3 |
1.5 / 2
1 / 1
|
|
1 / 3
0.5 / 2
|
1.5 / 2
1 / 2
|
1 / 2
2.5 / 3
|
2 / 2
1 / 3
|
| South Africa |
2 / 3
1 / 3
|
2 / 2
2 / 2
|
2.5 / 4
2 / 5
|
1.5 / 3
2 / 3
|
1.5 / 3
2 / 2
|
1.5 / 2
2 / 3
|
|
0 / 2
2 / 2
|
3 / 4
2 / 3
|
1 / 1
2 / 2
|
| Sri Lanka |
0 / 2
0 / 3
|
2 / 2
3 / 3
|
1.5 / 3
2 / 3
|
0.5 / 3
2 / 3
|
1 / 2
1 / 2
|
1 / 2
0.5 / 2
|
0 / 2
2 / 2
|
|
1 / 2
2 / 2 |
2 / 2
3 / 3
|
| West Indies |
0 / 3
0.5/3
|
2 / 2
1.5 / 2
|
0.5 / 4
3 / 5
|
0.5 / 3
1.5 / 4
|
1 / 2
0.5 / 2 |
0 / 2
1 / 2
|
1 / 3
1 / 4
|
0 / 2
1 / 2
|
|
1.5 / 2
2 / 2 |
| Zimbabwe |
0 / 2
0 / 1
|
0.5 / 2
1.5 / 2
|
0 / 2
1 / 2
|
0 / 2
0 / 2
|
0.5 / 1
0 / 2
|
2 / 3
0 / 2
|
0 / 2
0 / 1
|
0 / 3
0 / 2
|
0 / 2
0.5 / 2
|
|
Table C summarizes the home-away series win record of all the nine Test playing countries and Zimbabwe. Note that this table lists statistics relating to test series, not individual test matches.
| Country |
No of home wins |
No of away wins |
Total wins |
No of home draws |
No of away draws |
Total draws |
No of home losses |
No of away losses |
Total losses |
| Australia |
8 |
7 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Bangladesh |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
8* |
16* |
| England |
6 |
3 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
7 |
| India |
6* |
5 |
11* |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
| New Zealand |
1 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
| Pakistan |
5 |
4 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
| South Africa |
7 |
6 |
13 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
| Sri
Lanka |
6 |
2 |
8 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
| West
Indies |
3 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
10 |
| Zimbabwe |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
7 |
14 |
Our next update will appear in mid-May after the make-shift England-West Indies Test series -- a series that, one suspects, only Andrew Strauss is looking forward to!
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