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2021 ICC Rankings Annual Update - New Zealand and West Indies to expect historic gains
April 21, 2021
Its that time of the year when ICC Team Ratings go through
changes overnight, often resulting in changes in ICC Team Rankings. Its time
for ICC Team Rankings Annual Update. On May 1 every year, points earned earlier
than 36 months are dropped from ICC Team Ranking calculations. The weightage of
points earned earlier than May of last year is also halved. These mathematical
adjustments often leads to changes in team ratings that may effect the
changes in team rankings as well.
In ICC Test Team Rankings, West Indies are expected to break
into Top-6 Teams for the first time since the inception of official ICC Test
Ranking in 2002. West Indies are currently ranked 8th with 81 Rating
Points. The Annual Update is expected to take them to 84.41 points, surpassing
79.59 points of South Africa and 76.85 points of Sri Lanka. Both South Africa
and Sri Lanka will drop one rank in the table. England and Australia are also expected
to swap places at 3rd and 4th spot. England (currently
ranked 4th with 106 points) are expected to gain 3.14 points that
will be sufficient for them to rise above Australia (expected to lose 4.89
points). Australia are currently ranked 3rd with 113 points.
The rating points of all other teams will also be updated but not resulting in any other change in ICC Test Teams Rankings. New Zealand, Pakistan and Zimbabwe are also expected gain a couple of points. India are expected to hold on to their top rank even after losing about a point.
Bangladesh is expected to lose 4.86 rating points but the biggest loser of this
year’s ICC Test Rankings Annual Update is expected to be South Africa with the
loss of 9.41 points. It will also be the first time since August 1963 where South Africa will not be part of Top-6 Test sides (excluding their isolation era).
Meanwhile, interesting shake up, right at the top of the
table, is expected in ICC ODI Rankings. England – the current #1 ODI Team – is
expected to lose 6.12 points to slip from 121 points to 114.88 points. India (currently
ranked 2nd) are also expected to lose 3.69 points, sliding from 119
to 115.31 points. Meanwhile, Australia are expected to gain 6.55 points raising
their rating points tally from 111 to 117.55 – higher than both India and
England – and their ICC ODI Ranking to 2nd spot.
New Zealand are expected to become the highest ranked ODI
team in the world for the first time ever. They have never been ranked 1st
in ICC ODI Rankings. New Zealand are currently ranked 3rd with 118
points. They are expected to gain 2.79 points taking their tally to 120.79,
sufficient to place them highest on ICC ODI Teams Rankings table.
Sri Lanka (currently ranked 8th) and West Indies
(currently ranked 9th) are also expected to swap places in ICC ODI
Rankings. The biggest loser in this year’s annual update is expected to be
Pakistan with a loss of 5.05 points. The ICC ODI Team Rankings of other ICC
Full Member teams are expected to remain the same.
ICC Teams of The Decade and ICC Rankings
Dec 31, 2020 ( 7 min read )
The International Cricket Council, recently, announced a list of honors and awards based on performances in the last decade, the period in between January 1, 2011 till October 7, 2020.
4 day Tests – Solution or Illusion?
HOME ADVANTAGE:
Toss Advantage:
People have not lost interest in Test Cricket because of its length. It is nothing but an illusion. People are still interested in seeing more of Leeds and Cape Town Tests. What they are no more interested in is boring, predictable, lopsided Cricket. For them, the grinding, fluctuating, unpredictable and intensely competitive Cricket is still irresistible, regardless if it lasts for 4 days or 5.
Coaches in Numbers
So, here's a look at what results Pakistan has produced under different coaches in different formats in the recent past. The recent past, for this discussion, includes all performances in the current decade – 2010s – from Pakistan’s tour to Australia in 2009/10 onwards.
Results breakup across formats:
Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratios in all three formats have remained lower in 2010s than what Pakistan’s overall Win/Loss Ratios were in periods prior to it.
In Tests, Pakistan won Test matches with much higher frequency in 2010s than as compared to earlier. Pakistan won 42% of all Tests played in this period as compared to winning 30% of all Tests played earlier.
However, Pakistan lost Test matches also with higher frequency than the period before. Pakistan lost 43% of the Tests played in this period as compared to losing only 27% of all Tests played earlier.
The rise in frequency on both sides of the spectrum highlights the recent trend of more Tests producing results than earlier.
Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio dropped, however. In 2010s, Pakistan won 32 and lost 33, whereas, Pakistan had won 104 and lost 95 till 2010.
In ODIs, Pakistan’s frequency of winning dropped from 53% to 49% while the frequency of losing rose from 44% to 48%. Subsequently, Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio also dropped from 1.22 to 1.01.
In 2010s, Pakistan won 102 ODIs and lost 101 as compared to winning 382 and losing 312 ODIs in the earlier period.
The most considerable variance in Pakistan’s results occurred in T20I format where Pakistan’s staggering Win/Loss Ratio of 4.2 dropped to 1.5 – even after a splendid spell of 30 wins compared to 7 losses in last three years.
However, that looks so because of lesser number of T20I Cricket played till the beginning of the current decade.
At the turn of the decade, Pakistan had won 21 T20Is and had lost only 5, yielding an astounding Win Percentage of 78%. From then on, Pakistan managed to win 69 and lost 45 T20Is – a win percentage of 59%, still a pretty satisfactory frequency of winning.
Coaches in 2010s
Moving on to our primary topic of discussion, let us have a look at what results Pakistan produced under different coaches across the formats in the current decade.
Twenty20 Internationals:
Pakistan’s decade of 2010, in T20Is, is punctuated with the worst and the best performances at the beginning and at the end of the decade, respectively.
In a period of 18 months, during the first tenure of Waqar Younis as the Head Coach, Pakistan won only 6 out of 19 T20Is. To put into perspective, till the beginning of that tenure, Pakistan had won 21 out of 27 T20Is played in between 2006 to 2009. 13 losses in T20Is during that period is the most for Pakistan under any coach.
Mohsin Khan’s tenure lasted for only 5 T20Is; winning 3 and losing 2.
Under Whatmore, Pakistan started to rebuild, somewhat. During Whatmore’s coaching tenure of almost 2 years, Pakistan won 15 out of 25 T20Is, yielding a win percentage of 60% and a Win/Loss ratio of 1.67 (winning 3 out of every 5 matches).
Moin Khan supervised Pakistan’s T20I unit for only 4 T20Is; winning 2 and losing 2.
Waqar Younis returned to office in June 2014 and so did, to an extent, Pakistan’s performance in T20Is. During this tenure, Pakistan lost 12 out of 24 T20Is (1 resulted in a tie). Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio dropped, again, to under 1.
In May 2016, Mickey Arthur took over and that coincided with Pakistan’s golden period in T20I format. During the next three years, Pakistan won 30 and lost only 7 T20Is, that was as good as Pakistan’s first three years in this format that saw Pakistan losing only 5 T20Is and winning 21, including WT20 Tournament in 2009.
One Day Internationals:
Pakistan decade of 2010, in ODIs, has remained pretty consistent – consistently average, to be exact.
Pakistan entered the decade ranked 7th in ICC ODI Ranking and its holding 6th spot, as of today, that has also remained the mean ICC Ranking of Pakistan throughout this decade.
Pakistan produced reasonably good results during the first tenure of Waqar Younis. Pakistan won 19 out of 34 and lost 14 ODIs, maintaining a win percentage of 56% and Win/Loss Ratio of 1.4
Pakistan played 15 and won 10 ODIs during the brief stint of Mohsin Khan. That produced a healthy win percentage of 67%
Dav Whatmore’s tenure saw Pakistan winning 22 and losing 22 ODIs out of 47 played, yielding a Win/Loss Ratio of perfectly 1.
Pakistan, then played 5 ODIs, during Moin’s tenure, winning 3 and losing 2.
Then came the second tenure of Waqar Younis as Head Coach of Pakistan; that’s exactly where Pakistan registered their worst results in ODIs during any period of considerable length. During this period, Pakistan lost 24 out of 40 ODIs, yielding a massive Loss Percentage of 60%. In contrast, Pakistan won only 15 ODIs, yielding a Win/Loss Ratio of only 0.6 – easily one of the worst periods for Pakistan in ODI format.
Mickey Arthur replaced Waqar in 2016. Although the numbers improved a bit but only in comparison to dismal numbers during Waqar’s second tenure. Under Mickey, Pakistan lost 34 out of 64 ODIs and won only 32. Although an improvement, yet Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio during his tenure remained under 1.
Tests:
Pakistan won 4 and loss 5 out of 12 Tests played during the first tenure of Waqar Younis. Win percentage of 33% as compared to loss percentage of 42% and Win/Loss Ratio of 0.8 – considerably lower than Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio of 1.09 before this period.
Mohsin Khan’s tenure as coach was a rare golden period in Tests for Pakistan. During this period, Pakistan played 8 Tests, won 6 and lost none. This is as rare as it can get – a win percentage of 75%.
Pakistan’s Test performance, however, dipped right after. During Dav Whatmore’s tenure, Pakistan won only 3 out of 13 Tests and lost 7 – a Win/Loss Ratio of only 0.4; Pakistan’s lowest in any format for any span of considerable duration.
Pakistan didn’t play any Tests during Moin Khan’s tenure.
Waqar’s second tenure saw much better results. Pakistan won 8 out of 15 Tests and lost only 4; a Win/Loss Ratio of 2 (winning 2 Tests to every Test lost).
Then came Mickey Arthur. During his tenure, Pakistan won 10 out of 28 and lost 17 Tests. Pakistan’s loss percentage of 61%, during this period, is by far the worst frequency of losing Tests.
In a nut shell, this is how Pakistan’s Coaches fared in numbers during this decade
ICC Rankings:
Numbers do provide quantitative measure of proceedings to quite an extent. However, it often does not reflect the quality of, say, a win or a loss that are counted equally in numbers.
Let’s resort to ICC Rankings as the standard to evaluate the quality of results Pakistan produced under different coaches during the recent past. Here’s the quick view of :
a) What was Pakistan’s ICC Ranking in the format when a coach took over
b) What was Pakistan’s ICC Ranking in the format when that coach left and
c) What was the Net gain between the start and end of tenure of a particular coach:
To sum it all up:
Waqar's first tenure was not that bad. The second, however, was as horrendous as it can get. Although, Pakistan did do well numerically in Tests during his second tenure but in terms of quality, it was still below par - as reflected by net drop of 1 spot in Pakistan's ICC Test ranking between the start and end of his second tenure.
Mohsin Khan had a reasonably good short stint.
Moin Khan's tenure wasn't long enough to talk about much. Dav Whatmore produced average results. Although, Pakistan's ranking did improve in Tests and T20I formats but performance in ODIs remained pretty ordinary.
Mickey Arthur revolutionized Pakistan in the shortest format but in the longest format, Pakistan remained an inconsistent, undecided and under-performing unit that lost many more than what they should have. In the medium length format as well, it was far from satisfactorily consistent.
Under Mickey, although Pakistan did manage to win the accolades of rising to the Number 1 in ICC Test Ranking and winning ICC Champions Trophy but even with such achievements, Pakistan's results in the formats remained highly inconsistent that was a disappointment in itself. Yet, in T20Is, it left Pakistan with a kind of consistency that World of Cricket only dream about Pakistan.
ICC World Test Championship - Retrospective View - 2016-2019
ICC World Test Championship 2019-2021
Tests in Series | Points Available | Points for each | ||
Win | Tie | Draw | ||
2 | 120 | 60 | 30 | 20 |
3 | 120 | 40 | 20 | 13.3 |
4 | 120 | 30 | 15 | 10 |
5 | 120 | 24 | 12 | 8 |
Similarly, England will play the most number of Tests, 11, away from home, while Sri Lanka will play only 6 away Tests. Australia will play 10, West Indies 9, India 8, while Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa will play 7 Tests each away from home.
Variance in Quality of Opposition for each team:
ICC World Test Championship 2019-2021 |
Interested to know how teams would stack up if the same ICC Test Championship formula is applied to Test Cricket in the recent years? Find the answer here