ICC announce ranking scenarios ahead of the Ashes

International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the ranking scenarios ahead of the Ashes which will commence on Thursday. England is currently third placed and are enjoying an eight-point lead over their arch-rivals Australia who are at the fifth position. However, the hosts have a chance of overtaking their opponents if they win the five-match series with a margin 2-0 or better.

In case, Australia, like in 2013, whitewashes England, then they will climb to the third position with 106 rating points. But the poms will lose seven points and slip to 98 points. In the current scenario, the hosts will earn more points if they win the series and the visitors will have to take care that they don’t lose the series. If they manage to draw the series, they will not only retain their third position but also retain the all-important urn.

What if England wins the series?

If England stuns Australia and win the series, they would close in on the second placed South Africa. If the visitors trump the Aussies and whitewash them, which is a highly unlikely scenario, they will earn 5 important points as their opponents will lose six points and go down to 91 rating points, their lowest ever in this decade.

As far as the personal milestones are concerned, Steve Smith and Joe Root are sitting pretty at the first and second positions respectively, But the former has a huge 47 point lead over his counterpart. David Warner is the only other batsman (6th) for Australia in the top 10. Similarly, apart from Root, only Cook makes it to the list and is at the tenth position.

As far as the bowling is concerned, James Anderson is at the top and would look to stay at the position by the end of the series. Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon have captured sixth and seventh places respectively. These are the only players who are involved in the tussle which will begin from November 23 and would be looking trump each other in the rankings.

Here are the scenarios according to the media release by ICC:

• Australia win 5-0 – Australia 106 (+9), England 98 (-7)
• Australia win 4-0 – Australia 104 (+7), England 99 (-6)
• Australia win 4-1 or 3-0 – Australia 103 (+6), England 100 (-5)
• Australia win 3-1 or 2-0 – Australia 102 (+5), England 101 (-4)
• Australia win 3-2, 2-1 or 1-0 – England 102 (-3), Australia 101 (+4)
• Drawn series – England 104 (-1), Australia 97 (no change)
• England win 5-0 – England 110 (+5), Australia 91 (-6)
• England win 4-0 – England 109 (+4), Australia 92 (-5)
• England win 4-1 or 3-0 – England 108 (+3), Australia 93 (-4)
• England win 3-2, 2-1 or 1-0 – England 106 (+1), Australia 96 (-1)
• England win 3-1 or 2-0 (England 107 (+2), Australia 94 (-3)

Here are the current ICC Test team rankings