Team India found their way to top of the Test rankings right ahead of the all-important Test series between India which is slated to star from February 9, 2023. But India's moment of joy couldn't last more than two hours as the change in ranking was a result of a massive glitch in the ICC website.
ICC gave Team India 115 rating points to make them the no.1 ranked side in Tests while Australia only had 111 points instead 126.
Also, South Africa, who are fourth-ranked, slipped to the fifth spot while West Indies jumped from eighth to the sixth spot. The Twitterati didn't take time to start posting ICC's err in the Test ranking.
This is how the changed Test ranking looked like:
However, ICC soon made the correction on their website and the mighty Australia are back at no.1 spot in Test rankings. But India can still dislodge Australia from top if they manage to defeat Australia in the home series.
ICC Test rankings change only at the end of every series, and neither Australia nor India are currently playing with each other. The rankings were last updated on January 8, 2023 after Australia romped over South Africa 2-0 in a three-match series.
Meanwhile, few days back BCCI announced the 17-member strong India's squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which saw Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan make it to the India fold for the longest format of the game. India's star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who was out of action for quite a while, has also been included for all-important series.
India will face Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 next month with the first Test beginning on February 9 in Nagpur. The remaining three Tests of the series will be played in Delhi (Feb 17-21), Dharamsala (March 1-5), and Ahmedabad (March 9-13) respectively.
India Test squad (First two games): Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, C Pujara, V Kohli, S Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
India Test squad Schedule
India vs Australia, 1st Test- February 9- February 13 at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur
India vs Australia, 2nd Test- February 17-February 21 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
India vs Australia, 3rd Test- March 01 - March 05 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala
India vs Australia, 4th Test- March 9- March 13 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
