West Indies’ 84 points see them move ahead of South Africa (80) and Sri Lanka (74) in the Test rankings. India leads the rankings with 121 while New Zealand is second on 120. England (109), Australia (108) and Pakistan (94) are third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Brathwaite was encouraged by the news.
“I’m very proud of the team to jump two places in the Test rankings. I think this is just the beginning of good things to come,” he said.
“As a group, it shows that we can climb up the ladder and it’s just important for us to work hard and keep the belief and attitude to doing things right – in the preparation and the execution on the field. Once we continue to do the small things right and have the right attitude … because Test cricket is never easy… the sky is the limit.”
The West Indies growth and progress is the result of the memorable 2-0 win away to Bangladesh and the hard-fought 0-0 draw in the Sandals Test Series at home against Sri Lanka. It signals an overall rise for the team – last month it was announced they moved up one spot in the ICC One-Day International (ODI) rankings – following the 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka in the CG Insurance ODI Series.
Jimmy Adams, CWI’s Director of Cricket praised the players and the support staff on the accomplishment.
“I am pleased to see the improvement from eighth to sixth in our Test ranking. This comes on the back of good cricket played earlier in the year against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Adams said.
“Firstly, we should recognize the efforts of the players and support staff on the ground who have delivered results under pressure and secondly to the large number of people working tirelessly in the background to support them in the face of multiple challenges. We continue to work hard towards our strategic goal of top 3 rankings across all formats.”
There was more good news as the ICC MRF Tyres player rankings also revealed that former captain Jason Holder remains the number-one Test all-rounder and is also the West Indies’ highest-ranked Test bowler at Number 8. Kemar Roach is the next highest at Number 12.
The West Indies will soon have an opportunity to pick up more valuable ranking points when they host South Africa in June before taking on fifth-ranked Pakistan in a Test Series due to played in August 2021 as part of the next cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will have direct entry into the Super 12s.
The West Indies, champions in 2012 and 2016, lost four of their five group matches in the world cup and slipped to 10th in the ICC T20 rankings and find themselves below Sri Lanka, who are ninth as well as Bangladesh, the only team to lose to the West Indies and Afghanistan, who beat the West Indies in their final warm-up game prior to the start of the T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh has risen to eighth because of their home-series wins over Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan is seventh in the rankings.
Matthews went up by three places among the bowlers, to slot in behind Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn and Deepti Sharma, and rose one spot among allrounders to be just four rating points away from No. 1 Sophie Devine.
In four T20Is at home against England, who are leading 4-0 in the five-match series, Matthews has picked up five wickets and scored 66 runs with knocks of 23 and 25 in the last two games.
The West Indies lost the series 2-1 and relinquished the Wisden Trophy they won in the Caribbean in early 2019.
Holder’s ranking took a hit after his underwhelming showing at Old Trafford where he took only two wickets for 107 runs as the West Indies fell to defeat by 269 runs.
At the end of the second Test that was also played at Old Trafford, Holder had 834 ranking points. However, having underperformed with the ball in the final Test, the Barbadian lost 24 ranking points, which triggered his fall down the rankings.
However, he maintains his number 2 ranking in the all-rounder rankings behind England’s Ben Stokes.
Meanwhile, Kemar Roach, who took his 200th Test wicket in the final Test in which he snared four wickets, collected four ranking points to move up a spot from 16th in the rankings.
Shannon Gabriel holds firm at 19. Chase is at 31.
Taylor, who has 747 points, to lead the Australian pair of Alyssa Healy (736) and Ellyse Perry (734), is the only West Indian woman in the top 10 of the batting rankings.
The next best West Indies Women in the rankings are Deandra Dottin who is ranked 30th despite being out for several months after undergoing surgery and rehabilitation and Hayley Matthews who is ranked 32nd.
Taylor lies second in the allrounder rankings. Her 410 ranking points sees her trailing Perry’s 519 points. Matthews and Dottin are 17th and 18th, respectively. She is ranked 19th among ODI bowlers.
Meantime, the West Indies captain is ranked eighth in the T20 batting rankings that are topped by New Zealand’s Suzie Bates. Dottin is ranked 15th.
Afy Fletcher at 8, is the best ranked T20 bowler.
Matthews is the best West Indies allrounder as evidenced by her third place in the rankings. Taylor is ranked seventh.
From a team perspective, the West Indies are sixth in ODIs and fifth in T20 internationals.
This, as West Indies batsman Brandon King climbed into the top 10, and England spinner Adil Rasheed assumed the new World number one ranking.
King, who stroked an unbeaten 82 in Barbados that gave West Indies a 2-0 series lead, is up six places to sixth, while Nicholas Pooran is up two spots to 12th.
Rashid has been rewarded for his good consistent form in the Caribbean, as he moved up two places to take the top spot from Afghanistan's Rashid Khan. West Indies spinner Akeal Hosein is the sixth-ranked T20 bowler.
Meanwhile, there remains only one West Indies player holding a top 20 position in the latest One-day Internation (ODI) rankings, with West Indies skipper Shai Hope being the highest rated at 11th on the batting list.
Despite missing a few big faces, West Indies managed to sweep the series, and that along with the rise in rankings should provide a significant boost to the confidence of the Darren Sammy-coached side heading into the June 1-29 showpiece to be hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
With the series win, West Indies (254 rating points), the champions of the 2012 and 2016 editions of the T20 World Cup, are at the fourth place in the list led by 2007 champions India (264 rating points), with 2021 champions Australia (257 rating points) and defending champions England (254 rating points) at the second and third place respectively.
There were individual bright spots for West Indies in the series, who gained substantially in the T20I Player Rankings. This included stand-in skipper Brandon King, whose 159 runs helped him jump up five places to the eighth position in the Men’s T20I Batting Rankings.
His opening partner, Johnson Charles, who hit a blistering 69 from 26 balls in a Player of the Match performance in the third game of the series, gained 17 spots to reach the 20th place.
Meanwhile, Kyle Mayers (31st place in Batting Rankings) and Gudakesh Motie (27th place in Bowling Rankings) were the other beneficiaries from the recently concluded series.
These results bode well for the Men in Maroon, who will be looking for a record third title during their home T20 World Cup. They are placed in Group C along Afghanistan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.
They start their campaign against Papua New Guinea in Guyana on Sunday.
ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings
India -264 points
Australia - 257 points
England - 254 points
West Indies - 252 points
New Zealand - 250 points
