Sri Lanka goes head to head with New Zealand in a two-match Twenty20 International series needing to win, at least, one match to retain its top position on the Reliance ICC T20I Team Rankings Table.
Sri Lanka, currently ranked number one with 128 ratings, needs to win one of the two matches in the series against New Zealand to retain the top spot. Sri Lanka enters the series leading seventh-ranked New Zealand by 25 ratings points. Because the rankings are weighted to reflect this difference, Sri Lanka’s failure to win both the matches will result in it losing as many as eight points, which means either India, South Africa or Pakistan could become the number-one ranked side, depending on how the series between South Africa and Pakistan pans out.
However, if Sri Lanka wins a match in the series, it will retain the number-one ranking and will increase the lead if it makes it two out of two against the Blackcaps.
In the scenario of New Zealand beating Sri Lanka 2-0, either South Africa or Pakistan will need to make a clean sweep to claim the top spot from Sri Lanka.
However, if South Africa and Pakistan end up with a 1-1 deadlock, then India will move to the top of the tree.
Outside the top 20 of the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for T20I batsmen, Ross Taylor in 35th (up by two), Hashim Amla in 55th (up by 22), Mushfiqur Rahim in 63rd (up by 18) and Nasir Hossain in 67th (up by seven) and Quinton de Kock in 75th (up by 92).
Reliance ICC T20I Rankings (as of 15 November)
Rank Team Rating
1 Sri Lanka 128
2 India 123
3 South Africa 123
4 Pakistan 120
5 West Indies 120
6 England 112
7 New Zealand 103
8 Australia 102
9 Ireland 81
10 Bangladesh 72
11 Afghanistan 68
12 Scotland 62
13 Netherlands 51
14 Zimbabwe 46
15 Kenya 41
