Thaindian News

Dubai, Oct 24 (IANS) Reigning World Twenty20 champions England are the No.1 ranked side in the Twenty20 International (T20I) team rankings launched here Monday.

England, which is also the top ranked Test side, has 127 rtings points and leads second-placed Sri Lanka by just one rating point.

England’s T20 skipper Stuart Broad said they are delighted to be top-ranked team.

“The England team is delighted to be the number-one ranked international Twenty20 team in world cricket at this time but we’re certainly under no illusions that we must continue to work hard and improve if we’re to stay on top of the tree,” he said.

“We relish the chance to represent our country in the shortest form of the game and I know the England players are already looking forward to the challenge of defending our ICC World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka in less than 12 months time.”

Only six ratings points separate the next four sides with New Zealand occupying third position on 117, followed by South Africa, inuagural Twenty20 winner in 2007 India, and Australia.

The 2009 champions Pakistan are on seventh position.

While an England victory would increase its advantage over Sri Lanka to four ratings points, in case of a defeat it will slip to third position behind Sri Lanka and India.

An India victory would give fresh impetus to the one-off Pakistan-Sri Lanka T20I in Dubai November 25 as Sri Lanka would need to win that match to hold on to number one spot. Defeat to Pakistan would see Sri Lanka fall to joint third position alongside South Africa and India would take over as the top ranked side.

“The launch of T20I rankings will generate even more interest in the shortest format and will help to give more context to bilateral T20Is,” ICC general manager (Cricket) David Richardson said in a statement.

The T20I table reflects all T20Is played since August 2009. All T20Is played until the start of next August will be added to this table.

Teams that have played eight or more T20Is since August 2009 have been included on the table.

Bangladesh, along with Associate Members Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland, which have T20I status, will all join the table as soon as they have played sufficient matches to qualify for a ranking.