Indian cricket team fans were sent into jubilation when the International Cricket Council (ICC) updated the rankings on its website. The ICC website showed India as the top-ranked side in all three formats. This was the first such occasion of an Asian team and the second instance of a team being ranked no.1 in all three forms of the game. South Africa are the only team to achieve this unique feat.
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However, around five hours later, the ICC website showed that India have dropped to the second position in the Test rankings while Australia are still the top-ranked Test side. The Aussies have 126 rating points while India have 115 rating points. In the previous ranking where India were the top-ranked side, their rating points was 115 while Australia had 111 rating points. Nevertheless, things are back to normal and Indian fans are not happy.
This was the second such instance within thirty days when Indian fans were robbed of their happiness. A similar glitch occurred on 18 January when the ICC website showed India as the top-ranked side. While it was only for a few minutes, this time around, ICC took hours to get it fixed. For those unversed, while player rankings can be updated midway through a series, team rankings are updated only when a series gets over.
Can India become the top-ranked Test team?
Although Indian fans’ happiness was short-lived on these two occasions, they can enjoy India’s supremacy for a longer period of time if Rohit Sharma and Co. manage to beat Australia by a margin of three games in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. India already have a 1-0 lead as they beat Pat Cummins and Co. by an inning and 132 runs in the first Test in Nagpur.