England and Pakistan aim for upward movement in MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings

England, which recently prevailed 2-0 over Sri Lanka in a three-Test home series, is only three points behind Pakistan’s 111 points. This means that margins of 2-1 or 1-0 win will be enough for it to go past Pakistan in the points table, currently led by Australia at 118 points. Either of these results will see England lift to 110 points and Pakistan slip down to 107.

If England prevails 2-0 or 3-1, it will tie with second-placed India at 112 points, which is due to take on the West Indies in a four-Test series that ends a week after the England-Pakistan series. In case England is able to capitalise on the home advantage even better, it can rise to second position to 113 points with a 3-0 win and to 114 if it blanks Pakistan 4-0.

The small difference in points between India, Pakistan and England throws up a number of interesting scenarios.

A win for Pakistan in the series, by a 2-1 or 3-1 margin, will help it leapfrog India into second place, a position it has reached only once since the officials rankings were launched in 2003. That was in November last year when it beat England 2-0 in the United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan even has a chance to surge to the top of the rankings, but to make this happen it will have to win 3-0 or better. Pakistan’s best performance in England has been a 2-0 win in a three-Test series in 1996.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, England’s Joe Root will start as the highest-ranked batsman from either side in fourth place. The Yorkshire batsman will be keen to convert his poor run of form, which has seen him drop two places and 52 points following an ordinary series against Sri Lanka.

Captain Alastair Cook (12th) and in-form Jonny Bairstow (18th) are the other England batsmen to feature inside the top 20, who along with Ben Stokes (37th) and Moeen Ali (39th) will be aiming to make upward movements.

Bairstow has a chance to break into the top 10 if he continues the kind of form he showed in the recent home series against Sri Lanka, in which he aggregated 387 runs including an unbeaten 167 at Lord’s.

Pakistan boasts five batsmen inside the top 20, while opener Mohammad Hafeez is just outside the top 20 in 22nd place.

Younus Khan, who in the series against England in the UAE last season had become his country’s first batsman to complete 9,000 Test runs, is the highest-ranked batsman in fifth position. He trails Root by 11 points and will be eyeing a top three finish by the time the series concludes in mid-August at The Oval.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq is in 10th position and he is followed by Asad Shafiq (13th), Sarfraz Ahmed (19th) and Azhar Ali (20th).

Australia’s Steve Smith leads the field and he is followed by Kane Williamson of New Zealand and South Africa’s Hashim Amla.

In the MRF Tyres Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, James Anderson is likely to slip from his one-number position after a shoulder injury has sidelined him from the Lord’s Test. As each player is docked one per cent of his points for each Test he misses, Anderson is set to drop behind India’s Ravichandaran Ashwin, whom he leads by six points.

England’s third-ranked Stuart Broad will be the highest-ranked bowler going into the first Test. He is followed by Pakistan’s wrist-spinner Yasir Shah, who is still 24 wickets away from attaining the full ranking that comes with 100 Test wickets, but has a good chance of making it to the number one position this season.

Other bowlers aiming to improve their rankings include Stokes (26th), Zulfiqar Babar (28th), Moeen Ali (30th), Rahat Ali (35th), Wahab Riaz (38th) and Imran Khan (47th).

Series schedule:

14-18 July – 1st Test, Lord’s

22-26 July – 2nd Test, Old Trafford

3-7 August – 3rd Test, Edgbaston

11-15 August – 4th Test, The Oval

 
MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings (as of 12 July 2016, before the start of England-Pakistan series)

Rank   Team               Points

1.     Australia            118

2.     India                  112

3.     Pakistan             111

4.     England             108

5.     New Zealand       98

6.     South Africa        92

7.     Sri Lanka             85

8.     West Indies          65

9.     Bangladesh          57

 
MRF Tyres ICC Test player rankings (as of 12 July, before the start of England-Pakistan series)

Batsmen (Top 10)

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    Avge      Highest Ranking

   1         Steve Smith         Aus        925        60.18    936 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   2         K. Williamson      NZ         868        49.23    893 v Aus at Perth 2015

   3         Hashim Amla       SA         860        51.45    907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

   4         Joe Root              Eng        837        52.92     917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   5         Younus Khan       Pak        826        53.94    880 v SL at Lahore 2009

   6         AB de Villiers      SA          818        50.46    935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

   7         Adam Voges        Aus         811*!    95.50    811 v NZ at Christchurch 2016

   8         David Warner      Aus         800        50.06    880 v NZ at Perth 2015

   9         Angelo Mathews  SL          765        48.70    877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014

  10        Misbah-ul-Haq     Pak         764        48.89    842 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2014

 
Selected rankings

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    Avge      Highest Ranking

  12        Alastair Cook       Eng        730        46.89    874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012

  13        Asad Shafiq         Pak         726        43.28    746 v Eng at Dubai 2015

  18        Jonny Bairstow    Eng        695!       39.77    695 v SL at Lord's 2016

  19        Sarfraz Ahmed     Pak         691*      46.28    715 v SL at Galle 2015

  20        Azhar Ali             Pak         673        43.37    753 v SL at Pallekele 2012

  22        M. Hafeez            Pak         642!       40.85    642 v Eng at Sharjah 2015

  37        Ben Stokes           Eng        537        33.21    594 v Aus at Lord's 2015

  39        Moeen Ali            Eng        533        30.75    558 v SL at Durham 2016

 

Bowlers (Top 10)

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    Avge      Highest Ranking

   1         James Anderson   Eng        877         28.33    884 v SL at Durham 2016

   2         R. Ashwin            Ind         871!       25.39    871 v SA at Delhi 2015

   3         Stuart Broad         Eng        852        28.52    880 v SA at Johannesburg 2016

   4         Yasir Shah            Pak        846*!     24.17    846 v Eng at Sharjah 2015

   5         Dale Steyn            SA         841        23.76    789 v SA at Delhi 2015

   7         Trent Boult          NZ         757         29.14    825 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   8         Josh Hazlewood   Aus        741*       25.77    792 v WI at Hobart 2015

   9         Morne Morkel     SA          724         29.33    776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011

  10        V. Philander        SA          717         22.08    912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

 

Selected rankings

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    Avge      Highest Ranking

  26        Ben Stokes           Eng        491*     37.84    501 v SL at Headingley 2016

  28        Zulfiqar Babar     Pak          477*     38.82    501 v NZ at Dubai 2014

  30        Moeen Ali           Eng         467*     41.28    557 v SA at Durban 2015

  35        Rahat Ali             Pak         422*!    36.25    422 v Eng at Sharjah 2015

  38        Wahab Riaz         Pak         409*     34.16    431 v Eng at Dubai 2015

  47        Imran Khan          Pak        368*     28.10    372 v Eng at Dubai 2015

 

All-rounders (top 5)

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    Highest Ranking

   1         R. Ashwin            Ind        406       419 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   2         Shakib Al Hasan  Ban        384       419 v Zim at Khulna 2014

   3         Stuart Broad        Eng        284       382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012

   4         V. Philander        SA         275*/    376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014

   5         Ben Stokes          Eng        264 /*   276 v SA at Centurion 2016

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

!indicates career-highest rating