India, New Zealand move up Test rankings

South Africa have stretched their lead at the top of the ICC Test Team Rankings, while India and New Zealand also moved upwards to occupy the first four positions in the table after the latest annual update

ESPNcricinfo staff

11-May-2015

MS Dhoni and his team-mates after the loss, 4th Test, Adelaide, 5th day, January 28, 2012

India
Went up three places, benefiting from having both their 4-0 drubbings - in England in 2011 and in Australia in 2011-12 - knocked off the calculations, as the rankings currently consider all Tests from May 2012 onwards. That has helped India gain four points, lifting their tally from 95 to 99.
Pakistan
Dropped three places because their 3-0 thrashing of England in January 2012 - a period when England were the top-ranked Test team - was knocked off the calculations. Pakistan's 1-0 series win against Sri Lanka was also in the period which is now omitted.
England
Dropped five points as their 4-0 win against India - then the top-ranked team - is no longer considered.
New Zealand
Didn't gain any ranking points, but benefited from other teams dropping points, to move up two places in the table

South Africa have stretched their lead at the top of the ICC Test Team Rankings, while India and New Zealand both moved upwards to occupy three of the top four positions in the table after the latest annual update. With the results from the 2011-12 season now dropped from calculations and outcomes from 2013-14 weighted at 50 percent, South Africa extended their advantage over second-placed Australia to 22 rating points.

India, though, gained the most from the update, as it meant that their 4-0 whitewashes at the hands of England and Australia were no longer taken into consideration. The latest calculations had India with four more rating points, enough to move them up to fourth in the table, just behind New Zealand.

However, only three ranking points separate New Zealand in third, and Sri Lanka in seventh. Prior to the annual update, the gap between the third and seventh-ranked sides was seven points.

England and Pakistan lost six points each, dropping to fifth and sixth respectively in the table. This is due to England's 4-0 win over India, and Pakistan's 3-0 sweep against England among other results in 2011-12 being dropped from the rankings calculations.

West Indies, meanwhile, gained five ranking points to reduce the gap with Sri Lanka from 17 to 12. Bangladesh, in ninth spot, still remain a long way behind the major teams, but they managed to swell their lead over bottom-ranked Zimbabwe to 34 points.

Rankings 1 South Africa (130 points), 2 Australia (108), 3 New Zealand (99), 4 India (99), 5 England (97), 6 Pakistan (97), 7 Sri Lanka (96), 8 West Indies (84), 9 Bangladesh (39), 10 Zimbabwe (5)