The latest ICC annual ranking update, released on Friday, has brought a shake-up to the cricketing order, with Australia reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket while India maintains its dominance in the limited-overs formats.
Australia, the reigning World Test champions, capitalised on the rankings update system that drops older results.
Their victory against India in the 2020-21 series, which previously bolstered India's ranking, has now cycled out, allowing Australia's strong recent performances to propel them to the number one position with 124 points.
India follows closely behind at 120 points, with a comfortable lead of 15 points over third-placed England.
The update system assigns a higher weightage to recent matches, ensuring the rankings reflect current form.
This explains India's slight dip in Test rankings despite their recent series win against South Africa. However, they can take solace in leading the pack in both ODIs and T20Is.
India's grip on the white-ball formats seems unshakeable. They've extended their lead over Australia in the ODI rankings from three points to six, maintaining their position at the summit with 122 points.
This comes despite their narrow loss to Australia in the ODI World Cup final. The update system, which gives more weight to recent matches, likely played a role in this.
The story in T20Is is similar. India remains comfortably ahead of the pack with a dominant 264 rating points.
Australia, though climbing to the second position, still finds itself seven points adrift.
South Africa has made significant strides, jumping two places to grab the third spot, just two points behind England.
This movement in the rankings highlights the increasingly competitive nature of T20I cricket, with several teams vying for supremacy.
The rankings shake-up extends beyond the top teams. Teams like Ireland and Scotland have climbed the ladder, displacing Zimbabwe in the process.
This reflects the growing depth of talent and competitiveness across the cricketing world.
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