Australia snatch top T20 team spot from Pakistan

Australia has become the ICC Men’s top T20I team pushing Pakistan aside as the International Cricket Council released new rankings.

Australia (278 points) topped the list for the first time since the T20I rankings were introduced in 2011. Pakistan, who had overtaken New Zealand to reach top position in January 2018 and then spent 27 months there, are now fourth with 260 points.

England have moved into second position with 268 points while India are up one place to third, just two points behind.

Afghanistan are down from seventh to 10th while Bulgaria are the biggest gainers, up 12 places to 51st in the 84-country list of teams that played the requisite six matches in the past three years.

When the global T20I rankings were launched 12 months ago, there were 80 ranked teams.  Since then seven teams have joined the table (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Turkey), while three countries including France and Isle of Man have lost their rankings having played insufficient matches.

T20I Team Rankings

Rank Team Points
1 Australia 278 (+9)
2 England 268 (+1)
3 India 266 (+2)
4 Pakistan 260 (-10)
5 South Africa 258 (-1)
6 New Zealand 242 (-3)
7 Sri Lanka 230 (-2)
8 Bangladesh 229 (+2)
9 West Indies 229 (+3)
10 Afghanistan 228 (-5)
11 Zimbabwe 191 (-2)
12 Ireland 190 (+2)
13 UAE 186 (-)
14 Scotland 182 (-5)
15 Nepal 180 (-5)