After the conclusion of the first test match of the series between England and Pakistan, the standings in the ICC World Test Championship remained unchanged.
Despite suffering a loss at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan’s position in the standings has not changed from fifth to fifth place. In spite of this, their points percentage has dropped from 51.85% to 46.67% as a direct result of the 74-run defeat they suffered at the hands of England. As a result of this loss, Pakistan’s chances of making it to the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) have significantly decreased.
Pakistan suffered their fourth loss in the current WTC cycle as a result of the defeat. The team led by Babar Azam now needs to win their remaining four matches and hope that some other outcomes go their way in order to make it to the championship match.
On the other side, England has tightened their hold on the seventh spot in the ICC World Test Championship points table. This is a significant improvement for England. England’s points percentage has increased to 41.67% from 38.6% as a direct result of their victory over Pakistan. During this cycle of the World Table Tennis Championship, England has a record of eight victories, eight losses, and four ties.
The players under Ben Stokes have nothing to lose by competing in this competition. Even if they were to win both of their remaining games, they would not be able to get to the final of the ICC World Test Championship.
It is possible for England to move up to sixth place in the ICC World Test Championship points table very soon.
On December 8, the next match in this cycle of the ICC World Test Championship will get underway in Adelaide. The hosts, Australia, will be competing against West Indies in this encounter. The Australian team is now in first place in the standings, and if they are victorious against West Indies at the Adelaide Oval, then the Caribbean team will fall from sixth to seventh place in the standings.
In such scenario, England will advance one rank, moving from seventh to sixth.
It will be intriguing to see if Australia can accomplish a 2-0 clean sweep against the West Indies side in the series that they are currently playing in.