Although India currently top the official Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni has even received a mace for this achievement, Australia continue to stay on top of the Rediff Test Rankings.
There's a simple enough explanation for this: the ICC and Rediff Test rankings are calculated based on different formulae. ICC accords the highest weightage to recently won Test matches; the Rediff rankings consider a much wider window spanning the most recent home-away series between every pair of teams.
So while India's recent Ttest form is excellent, Australia has still done much more if we look at the Test results in the past few years.
The Rediff Test Rankings, as 2009 draws to a close, appear in Table A. Australia (77.49), India (62.83), South Africa (61.98) and England (49.00) occupy the top four places.
This update covers England's 2-1 Ashes win in England, Sri Lanka's 2-0 home win against New Zealand, India's 2-0 home win against Sri Lanka, Pakistan's 1-1 drawn series in New Zealand and Australia's 2-0 win at home against West Indies to retain the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.
| TABLE A: Final Rankings (as on December 29, 2009) |
| Country | Performance index (RBI) | Diff: 15.8.09 -> 29.12.09 | Rank |
| Australia | 77.49 | -0.42 | 1 |
| India | 62.83 | +0.16 | 2 |
| South Africa | 61.98 | -0.43 | 3 |
| England | 49.00 | -0.20 | 4 |
| Sri Lanka | 48.13 | +1.90 | 5 |
| Pakistan | 36.82 | -0.58 | 6 |
| New Zealand | 31.82 | -2.70 | 7 |
| West Indies | 29.46 | +1.83 | 8 |
| Zimbabwe | 12.50 | +0.14 | 9 |
| Bangladesh | 8.57 | -0.15 | 10 |
The current Reliance Mobile ICC Test rankings (as on December 29, 2009) are: India (124), South Africa (122), Australia (116), Sri Lanka (115), England (105), Pakistan (83), New Zealand (81), West Indies (77), Bangladesh (13) and Zimbabwe (12?). It seems a little curious that Australia and Sri Lanka appear to be at par.
The current home-away points tally of Test-playing teams is shown in Table B.
-- How the rankings work...
| TABLE B: Test Score Card (as on December 29, 2009) |
| A W A Y | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aus | Ban | Eng | Ind | NZ | Pak | RSA | SL | WI | Zim | ||
| H O M E |
Australia | 2 / 2 2 / 2 |
2 / 5 5 / 5 |
1 / 4 2.5 / 4 |
2.5 / 3 2 / 2 |
3 / 3 3 / 3 |
2 / 3 1 / 3 |
3 / 3 2 / 2 |
2.5/3 2.5 / 3 |
1 / 1 2 / 2 | |
| Bangladesh | 0 / 2 0 / 2 |
0 / 2 0 / 2 |
- 0.5 / 2 |
0 / 2 0.5 / 2 |
0 / 3 0 / 2 |
0 / 2 0 / 2 |
0 / 3 0 / 2 |
2 / 2 0 / 2 |
0.5 / 2 1.5 / 2 | ||
| England | 0 / 5 3 / 5 |
2 / 2 2 / 2 |
0.5 / 2 1 / 3 |
2 / 3 2.5/3 |
0.5 / 3 3.5 / 4 |
3 / 5 1.5 / 4 |
1 / 3 1.5 / 3 |
2 / 5 2 / 2 |
1 / 2 2 / 2 | ||
| India | 1.5 / 4 3 / 4 |
1.5 / 2 - |
2 / 3 1.5 / 2 |
2 / 3 1 / 2 |
1 / 3 2 / 3 |
1 / 3 1.5 / 3 |
1 / 3 2.5 / 3 |
2.5 / 4 2.5 / 3 |
2 / 2 2 / 2 | ||
| New Zealand | 0 / 2 0.5 / 3 |
1.5 / 2 2 / 2 |
0.5/3 1 / 3 |
1 / 2 1 / 3 |
0 / 1 1.5 / 3 |
0 / 2 1.5 / 3 |
0 / 2 1 / 2 |
1.5 / 2 1 / 2 |
2 / 2 0.5 / 1 | ||
| Pakistan | 0 / 3 0 / 3 |
2 / 2 3 / 3 |
0.5 / 4 2.5 / 3 |
1 / 3 2 / 3 |
1.5 / 3 1 / 1 |
1 / 3 0.5 / 2 |
0.5 / 3 1 / 2 |
1 / 2 2.5 / 3 |
2 / 2 1 / 3 | ||
| South Africa | 2 / 3 1 / 3 |
2 / 2 2 / 2 |
2.5 / 4 2 / 5 |
1.5 / 3 2 / 3 |
1.5 / 3 2 / 2 |
1.5 / 2 2 / 3 |
0 / 2 2 / 2 |
3 / 4 2 / 3 |
1 / 1 2 / 2 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 0 / 2 0 / 3 |
2 / 2 3 / 3 |
1.5 / 3 2 / 3 |
0.5 / 3 2 / 3 |
1 / 2 2 / 2 |
1 / 2 2.5 / 3 |
0 / 2 2 / 2 |
1 / 2 2 / 2 |
2 / 2 3 / 3 | ||
| West Indies | 0.5 / 3 0.5/3 |
2 / 2 0 / 2 |
0 / 2 3 / 5 |
0.5 / 3 1.5 / 4 |
1 / 2 0.5 / 2 |
0 / 2 1 / 2 |
1 / 3 1 / 4 |
0 / 2 1 / 2 |
1.5 / 2 2 / 2 | ||
| Zimbabwe | 0 / 2 0 / 1 |
0.5 / 2 1.5 / 2 |
0 / 2 1 / 2 |
0 / 2 0 / 2 |
0.5 / 1 0 / 2 |
2 / 3 0 / 2 |
0 / 2 0 / 1 |
0 / 3 0 / 2 |
0 / 2 0.5 / 2 |
||
Table C summarizes the home-away series win record of all the nine Test playing countries and Zimbabwe. Note that this table lists statistics relating to Test series, not individual Test matches.
| TABLE C: Series 'win-draw-loss' record (with 'home'-'away' break-up) (as on December 29, 2009) | *No India-Bangladesh series so far in India |
| Country | No of home wins | No of away wins | Total wins | No of home draws | No of away draws | Total draws | No of home losses | No of away losses | Total losses |
| Australia | 8 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 7* | 15* |
| England | 6 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| India | 6* | 5 | 11* | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Pakistan | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| South Africa | 7 | 6 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Sri Lanka | 8 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| West Indies | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 |
Our next update will appear after the Australia-Pakistan series Down Under and South Africa's home series against England.
