Dubai: A red-faced International Cricket Council (ICC) had to apologise on Thursday for erroneously showing India to be No. 1 team in Test rankings.
The ICC website displayed India having displaced Australia as the top-ranked team in Tests. Since they were already topping the white-ball formats — ODIs and T20 Internationals – it made them No. 1 in all three formats.
However, ICC rectified the error and stated that Australia are still on top of ICC Test Tea
m Rankings after the latest update following the conclusion of Zimbabwe’s two-match series against the West Indies.
The ICC acknowledged that for a short period of time on February 15, India were erroneously displayed as the No. 1 Test team on its website due to a technical error.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” ICC said.
Australia will thus take the field in the second Test against India, starting in Delhi on January 17, as No. 1-ranked team with 126 rating points — 11 above India’s 115.
India, who won the opening Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs, will have to win the four-match series convincingly to actually grab the numero uno Test spot and also qualify for the final of ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23.
Australia are also in fray for a place in the WTC final, to be played at London’s Oval from June 7 to 11.