Australia tour to Pakistan, the significance and highlights

published on 5 April 2022, in THE PLAYFIELD (magazine published from India)

International Cricket is truly back in Pakistan. Pakistan versus Australia Test Series, the first leg of the tour, might have painted a dull picture on the scorecards, but it fully served its purpose. The much bigger purpose, of bringing back an Australian side on Pakistani soil after almost two and a half decades. 

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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 3 : The Momentum Look

May 28, 2019
Summarizing how 2019 Cricket World Cup participants have performed against each other in last 4 years versus in the last 2 years

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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 2 : Since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

May 28, 2019
Narrowing down the period for our Review of 2019 World Cup participants – on the basis of their Win-Loss Ratio – to last 2 years, more specifically since the last ICC event, here is a look at how teams have scored during this period.

and here’s how each team has done against other opponents since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 1 : World Cup Runners Against Each Other Since 2015 World Cup

May 23, 2019
Right, so we are into the final week before ICC Cricket World Cup and the customary World Cup fever has just kicked in.

There’s no more Cricket to talk about for the next one week, leaving the fans around the world with nothing but ample time to take out their microscopes and analyze the teams participating in the contest through various statistical views, angles and dimensions.

Is there any right statistical view that could provide definitive evaluation of the teams participating in the World Cup 2019? The simple answer is, no – unless resorting to such methods and algorithms that become too complicated for a common fan to comprehend. Instead, there are quite a few popular views to benchmark the contestants of the World Cup.

One of such scenario is analysis of teams since the last World Cup. To make it even more relevant, let’s take look at the teams, specifically, against each other since the last World Cup, held in 2015.

That pretty much reflects the form of participating teams amongst each other in the last 4 years.





Moving on, let’s take a quick look at how teams have fared against the other 9 teams in this period, starting with Pakistan

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PREVIEW - Polar Opposites to contest for Pole Position

Its method versus flair, its predictability versus flamboyance, its Australia versus Pakistan, and the stage is the most explosive format of the game – T20I. If, over the years, Australians have symbolized success through consistency, Pakistan has showcased the impact of natural raw talent.

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ICC T20I Rankings Annual Update - No change in Top 4

South Africa will swap places with England at rank 5 and 6 in official ICC T20I Rankings update after this year’s annual update. The top 4 T20I teams - Pakistan, Australia, India and New Zealand - and 7th ranked West Indies will retain their current rankings.

Afghanistan will swap places at 8 and 9 with Sri Lanka while Scotland is expected to do the same at 10 and 11 with Bangladesh and Netherlands with Zimbabwe at 12 and 13. Since the T20I teams from non-Test playing nations haven’t played T20Is with same frequency as of T20I teams from Test Playing nations, ICC is expected to apply special formulas for their comparative rankings.

Similarly, in terms of rating points - the fundamental factor in the rankings that is awarded for each match based on the latest ranking of the opponent before that particular match - the impact of annual update on Teams' rating points will not be of any major significance.

However, in terms of teams earning the highest rating points in the last ICC T20I Rankings Season - May 2017 to April 2018 - Australia finishes at the top, followed closely by Pakistan.

Australia accumulated 155 rating points in this period which is incredible in itself, however, this tally was 44 points more than what they had on May 1, 2017 which makes the last season of ICC T20I Rankings even more remarkable for Australians.

Instead, if the performance of T20I teams during May 2017 and April 2018 is compared with their current rating points, Australia's performance still stands out.

The other team that performed even higher than outstanding benchmark was Pakistan who amassed 150 rating points in this period. This is the second successive ICC Ranking Season in which Pakistan achieved more than 150 rating points; the last season they compiled 155 rating points. As a result Fof these consistently outstanding performances, Pakistan became the number 1 T20I team in the world for the first time since the commencement of official ICC T20I Rankings in 2012.

To conclude this brief analysis, here is a quick view of how T20I Teams have progressed since the last annual update of ICC T20I Rankings

Disclaimer: 
All future calculations are for indicative purposes only & are based on information publicly available about Rankings formulas & rankings at different points in time; minor variation with official update is possible
Official status to be shared ICC in coming weeks.

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