Australia topple Pakistan to become top T20I team for the first time

England, who won the ICC World Cup for the first time ever in 2019, have increased their lead over India from six to eight points.

The latest ICC team rankings are out and the limited-overs formats in men’s cricket have seen some interesting changes, with most of them coming in the T20I format. As far as the ODIs are concerned, world champions England continue to lead the pack and have in fact managed to increase their lead on top of the rankings. England, who won the ICC World Cup for the first time ever in 2019, have increased their lead over India from six to eight points.

Aaron Finch and David Warner smile after game two of the Men's International Twenty20 series between Australia and Sri Lanka at The Gabba. (Getty Images)

New Zealand, who lost to England in the final of the World Cup despite tying the game in super over, remain in third place, three points behind India. The top ten rankings remain unchanged.

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In the T20I rankings, Pakistan have lost their top spot to Australia. Pakistan, who are one of the most consistent teams in the 20-over format, have in fact had a major fall. Australia tops the list for the first time since the T20I rankings were introduced in 2011. Pakistan, who had overtaken New Zealand to reach the top position in January 2018 and then spent 27 months there, are now fourth with 260 points.

England have moved into the 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 (France, Isle of Man, and Israel) have lost their rankings having played insufficient matches.

(With ICC inputs)