Pakistan remain on top of Men's T20I Rankings Table featuring 80 teams

DUBAI: Pakistan consolidated their position at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) table, which has a wider spread of points to accommodate the additional teams. Pakistan, ICC T20 World Cup champions in 2009, are now on 286 points while the next four teams are within two points of each other – South Africa (262), England (261), Australia (261) and India (260).

The ICC here on Friday unveiled an expanded Men’s T20I Team Rankings table with 80 teams who will now be able to gauge their progress in a format recognised by the world body as the vehicle for the growth of the game.

Teams like Austria, Botswana, Luxembourg and Mozambique are among the sides figuring in the first men’s T20I ranking table that features all members meeting the criteria of having played six matches against other ICC members since May 2016.

The move to expand the table follows ICC’s decision last year that all men’s T20 matches between members from January 1, 2019 will be classified as internationals. As with the ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings, which were launched in October 2018, teams will need to play six matches against other teams in the previous three to four years to remain in the rankings table.

The qualification process for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup which is underway includes 58 T20I matches across five regional finals is likely to mean significant movements on the rankings over the coming months. The first final was held in Papua New Guinea last month whilst the Africa final in Uganda (May19-24), the Europe final in Guernsey (June 15-19), the Asia final in Singapore (July 22-28) and the Americas final in the USA (August 19-25) are still to come.

Six of these teams will join hosts UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Zimbabwe in the global qualifier in what will be another chance to improve their standings on the table as they try to qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia.

Meanwhile,

South Africa and India have swapped positions two and five in the expanded table, whose launch coincides with the annual rankings update in which series results from 2015-16 are removed and outcomes from 2016-17 and 2017-18 are weighted at 50 per cent.

In other significant changes, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have moved up one place each to seventh and eighth positions, respectively, with the West Indies going down to ninth position. In what will be big news for their passionate fans, Nepal have moved from 14th to 11th position while Namibia have grabbed 20th position.

MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings (as on 3 May):

Rank Team Points

1 Pakistan 286

2 South Africa 262

3 England 261

4 Australia 261

5 India 260

6 New Zealand 254

7 Afghanistan 241

8 Sri Lanka 227

9 Windies 226

10 Bangladesh 220

11 Nepal 212

12 Scotland 199

13 Zimbabwe 192

14 Netherlands 187

15 Ireland 182

16 UAE 181

17 PNG 172

18 Oman 155

19 Hong Kong 152

20 Namibia 141

21 Qatar 129

22 Saudi Arabia 121

23 Singapore 118

24 Denmark 116

25 Canada 111

26 Jersey 106

27 Kuwait 104

28 Ghana 100

29 Kenya 95

30 Botswana 93

31 USA 84

32 Austria 73

33 Malaysia 73

34 Guernsey 68

35 Uganda 68

36 Germany 64

37 Sweden 58

38 Tanzania 56

39 Nigeria 55

40 Luxembourg 55

41 Spain 53

42 Philippines 48

43 France 45

44 Belize 42

45 Belgium 40

46 Peru 40

47 Bahrain 37

48 Mexico 36

49 Fiji 35

50 Samoa 34

51 Vanuatu 33

52 Panama 32

53 Japan 32

54 Costa Rica 32

55 Thailand 31

56 Argentina 31

57 Hungary 30

58 Mozambique 29

59 Chile 25

60 Malawi 25

61 Israel 25

62 Bhutan 23

63 Finland 22

64 South Korea 22

65 Isle of Man 21

66 Malta 14

67 Bulgaria 14

68 Sierra Leone 12

69 Brazil 12

70 Czech Republic 9

71 St Helena 9

72 Maldives 8

73 Gibraltar 4

74 Myanmar 3

75 Indonesia 0

76 China 0

77 Gambia 0

78 Swaziland 0

79 Rwanda 0

80 Lesotho 0

*Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Cameroon and Bermuda have also played matches but not enough to be on the T20I points table