Shuffling of the pack on cards : India to play top-ranked S. Africa, no 2 Aussies take on Kiwis

Both series will begin on Thursday, 5 November.

These four sides, as well as third-ranked England and fourth-ranked Pakistan, who are battling for supremacy in the Sharjah Test, are separated by just 26 points on the ICC Test Championship.

But all this could change, depending on how the three series pan out.

If Pakistan wins the final Test, then it will move marginally ahead of Australia into second place for the first time in nearly in a decade, while England will drop behind New Zealand to sixth position by a fraction of a point. In the case of England winning the Test, both sides will retain their pre-series rankings and points.

The ICC Test Championship table will then be updated at the end of Australia-New Zealand series, which means Australia will have to win the series by 1-0 or better to ensure it stays ahead of Pakistan (if Pakistan wins 2-0). In this series, Australia can rise to as high as 110 points, but can also drop to as low as 99 points.

In contrast, New Zealand will gain seven points if it wins 3-0 but will slip to 94 points if Australia sweeps the series.

The next update of the ICC Test Championship table will take place following the conclusion of the India-South Africa series.

In this series, India will have an opportunity to climb to second position, a fraction of a point behind South Africa. However, to make it happen, it will have to win all four Tests. On the other side of the coin, South Africa will vault to 130 points and India will plummet to 96 points if the visitors win all four Tests.

Like the ICC Test Championship table, the ICC Test Player Rankings are also up for major reshuffle as the bulk of the star performers will be in action over the next few weeks.

Although the ICC Test Player Rankings will be updated following the conclusion of the Sharjah Test, England’s Joe Root currently occupies the coveted number-one spot with Australia captain Steven Smith in second, just three points behind.

Root and Smith have been involved in the fight for the number-one slot since the Trent Bridge Test. And because there is such a small gap between the two batsmen, neither of them has been able to retain the slot for an extended period of time. With Root left with just one innings in the ongoing series, Smith has an opportunity to not only leapfrog Root but also create some daylight as he has six innings in hand.

Breathing down the throats of Root and Smith are the South African duo of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, who are separated by just nine points, with team-mate Faf du Plessis sitting in 16th spot.

Kane Williamson (seventh) of New Zealand and Australia’s David Warner (ninth) are the other batsmen inside the top 10 with Black Caps’ Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum in 13th and 15th positions respectively.

India captain Virat Kohli is his side’s highest-ranked batsman in 13th position and is accompanied by Cheteshwar Pujara (19th) and Murali Vijay (20th) inside the top 20.

Led by number one-ranked Dale Steyn, South Africa boasts Vernon Philander (seventh) and Morne Morkel (11th) inside the top 20 with Imran Tahir in 59th spot. For India, Ravichandran Ashwin (eighth) and Ishant Sharma (19th) are inside the top 20, while the next highest-ranked bowler is Ravindra Jadeja in 30th spot, followed by Amit Mishra (38th), Umesh Yadav (42nd) and Varun Aaron (86th).

The New Zealand batsmen will face a real challenge in the three-Test series as five Australia bowlers feature inside the top 20. These include Mitchell Johnson (sixth), Peter Siddle (13th), Josh Hazlewood (16th), Nathan Lyon (17th) and Mitchell Starc (20th).

Fifth-ranked Trent Boult will spearhead New Zealand’s bowling attack, which also includes Tim Southee (10th), Mark Craig (39th) and Doug Bracewell (40th).

The top five all-rounders includes three players who will feature in Australia and India, including Ashwin (second), Philander (fourth) and Johnson (fifth).

The ICC Test Championship and ICC Test Player Rankings will be updated after the conclusion of the Sharjah Test.

Series schedule

India v South Africa

5-9 Nov – 1st Test, Mohali

14-18 Nov – 2nd Test, Bengaluru

25-29 Nov – 3rd Test, Nagpur

3-7 Dec – 4th Test, New Delhi

Australia v New Zealand

5-9 Nov – 1st Test, Brisbane

13-17 Nov – 2nd Test, Perth

27 Nov-1 Dec – 3rd Test, Adelaide (d/n)

ICC Test Championship table (as on 3 November, before the start of India-South Africa and Australia-New Zealand Test series and before the end of Pakistan-England Test series)

Rank   Team               Points

1          South Africa   125
2          Australia         106
3          England           102
4          Pakistan          101
5          India                100
6          New Zealand   99
7          Sri Lanka        89
8          West Indies     81
9          Bangladesh     47
10        Zimbabwe       5

ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 3 November, before the start of India-South Africa and Australia-New Zealand Test series and before the end of Pakistan-England Test series)

Batsmen (top 20)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Ave        HS Rating

   1         Joe Root               Eng        913        56.79    917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   2         Steven Smith       Aus        910        56.27    936 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   3         AB de Villiers     SA         890        52.09    935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

   4         Hashim Amla      SA         881        52.48    907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

   5         Younus Khan       Pak        854        54.31    880 v SL at Lahore 2009

   6         Angelo Mathews SL          851        51.43    877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014

   7         Kane Williamson NZ         813        45.70    860 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   8         Alastair Cook      Eng        783        47.39    874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012

   9         David Warner      Aus        775        46.78    880 v Ind at Adelaide 2014

  10        Misbah-ul-Haq    Pak        757        48.77    842 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2014

  11        Asad Shafiq         Pak        746      43.89    746 v Eng at Dubai 2015

  12        Virat Kohli          Ind         730        45.06    784 v NZ at Wellington 2014

  13        Ross Taylor         NZ         722        44.99    871 v WI at Hamilton 2013

  14        S Chanderpaul     WI         720        51.37    901 v NZ at Napier 2008

  15        B McCullum        NZ         715        38.76    760 v SL at Christchurch 2014

  16        Faf du Plessis      SA         709     51.55    710 v WI at Port Elizabeth 2014

  17        Azhar Ali             Pak        697        44.06    753 v SL at Pallekele 2012

  18        Sarfraz Ahmed    Pak        689     46.96    715 v SL at Galle 2015

  19        C Pujara               Ind         681        49.28    851 v SA at Durban 2013

  20        Murali Vijay        Ind         680        41.72    689 v Ban at Fatullah 2015

Other selected rankings

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Avge      HS Rating

  22        Ajinkya Rahane   Ind         661     43.64    699 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  24        BJ Watling          NZ         644      40.71    644 v Eng at Headingley 2015

  32        Shikhar Dhawan  Ind         581     44.53    593 v SL at Galle 2015

  38        Tom Latham        NZ         534     39.52    569 v Pak at Dubai 2014

  39        Dean Elgar           SA         533    39.42    533 v Ban at Mirpur 2015

  41        JP Duminy           SA         524        35.55    586 v SL at Galle 2014

  46        Rohit Sharma      Ind         507     37.82    578 v NZ at Wellington 2014

  48        R Ashwin             Ind         457        32.44    527 v Eng at Old Trafford 2014

  49        Adam Voges        Aus        455    46.00    455 v Eng at The Oval 2

Bowlers (top 20)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Avge      HS Rating

   1         Dale Steyn           SA         905        22.48    909 v WI at Centurion 2014

   2         Yasir Shah           Pak        827    24.55    827 v Eng at Dubai 2015

   3         James Anderson  Eng        824        29.20    847 v WI at Barbados 2015

   4         Stuart Broad        Eng        817        29.40    852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   5         Trent Boult          NZ         814        27.12    825 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   6         Mitchell Johnson Aus        773        27.94    849 v Pak at Dubai 2014

   7         Vernon Philander SA         770        22.13    912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

   8         R Ashwin             Ind         760        28.44    808 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   9         Rangana Herath   SL          751        29.49    851 v Pak at Colombo (SSC) 2014

  10        Tim Southee        NZ         713        31.63    799 v WI at Jamaica 2014

  11        Morne Morkel     SA         705        29.66    776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011

  12        Saeed Ajmal        Pak        675        28.10    855 v Zim at Harare 2013

  13        Peter Siddle         Aus        646        29.87    816 v Eng at Old Trafford 2013

  14        Kemar Roach       WI         642        28.21    774 v SA at Centurion 2014

  15        D Prasad              SL          632    35.97    632 v WI at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  16        Josh Hazlewood  Aus        628     21.75    634 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2015

  17        Nathan Lyon        Aus        616        34.09    648 v Eng at Melbourne 2013

  18        Shakib Al Hasan  Ban        614        33.29    700 v Zim at Khulna 2014

  19        Ishant Sharma      Ind         613        36.51    671 v WI at Dominica 2011

  20        Mitchell Starc     Aus        596     31.80    627 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2015

Other selected rankings

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Avge      HS Rating

  25        Neil Wagner        NZ         526     34.48    549 v WI at Barbados 2014

  30        Ravindra Jadeja   Ind         466     30.37    570 v SA at Durban 2013

  32        M Shami              Ind         449     36.14    467 v Aus at Sydney 2015

  39        Mark Craig          NZ         404    40.02    404 v Eng at Headingley 2015

  40        Doug Bracewell   NZ         401     35.10    538 v WI at Jamaica 2012

  42        Umesh Yadav      Ind         389     38.56    412 v Aus at Melbourne 2014

  52        B Kumar              Ind         339     35.00    443 v Eng at Old Trafford 2014

  59        Imran Tahir         SA         295     46.39    312 v Pak at Dubai 2013

All-rounders (top five)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         HS Rating

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

   2         R Ashwin             Ind         347       419 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   3         Vernon Philander SA         337        376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014

   4         Stuart Broad        Eng        301       382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012

   5         Mitchell Johnson Aus        263       384 v Eng at Cardiff 2009