ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India lead the way in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2015 standings after the International Cricket Council (ICC) penalized England and Australia for slow over-rate, the ICC said in a report on Wednesday.
The World Test Championship is a two-year competition that sees an undisputed World Test champion crowned at the end of a league campaign and a showpiece decider. The league’s format sees each team playing three home and three away series to determine the qualifiers for the WTC Final.
England and Australia were hit with sanctions for slow over-rate after the five-match Ashes Test series concluded on August 1. Pakistan topped the rankings last week after whitewashing Sri Lanka, beating the hosts by an innings and 222 runs on July 26 to win the series 2-0.
“Pakistan have made a perfect start to the 2023-25 campaign with a point percentage of 100 after their clean sweep against Sri Lanka,” the ICC said in a report. “After a closely fought first Test, Babar Azam’s men dominated the hosts with a thumping innings victory in the second Test.”
England were docked 19 points and Australia 10 points as a penalty for slow over-rate across the series as they fell further down the WTC25 standings.
India are placed at number two on the WTC standings with 16 points from their one win against West Indies, behind Pakistan who have 24 points. The blue shirts were hunting for a second win against the West Indies before rain resulted in the second Test ending in a draw last week.
“Before the sanctions, England and Australia had 26 points each and a point percentage of 43.33.” the ICC said. After the penalties, Australia dropped to 30 percent while England plummeted to 15 percent, taking them below West Indies at 16.67 percent.
Sri Lanka are placed at the bottom of the table after losing to Pakistan 2-0 at home. Bangladesh, New Zealand and South Africa are yet to kickstart their campaign in the current iteration of the World Test Championship.
Pakistan’s victory over Sri Lanka last month in Galle was a sigh of relief for the Babar Azam-led squad. Before the Galle Test, Pakistan had failed to win a single Test contest in the last 12 months.
