Opportunity for both New Zealand and Pakistan to top ICC T20 Rankings

Lahore: New Zealand and Pakistan will have an opportunity to achieve number-one T20 ranking for the first time when they lock horns in the three-match series in Auckland on Friday, 15 January.

New Zealand, following its 2-0 win over Sri Lanka, has joined Pakistan on 114 points. The side which wins all the three matches in the forthcoming series will move ahead of the West Indies in number-one spot, and the losing side will drop to eighth position. The side that wins the series 2-1 will leapfrog South Africa into fifth position.

Afghanistan, which won its two-match series against Zimbabwe in Sharjah on Sunday, is now sitting on 80 points in ninth position after gaining three points. Zimbabwe, in contrast, has stayed in 14^th position but has slipped to 50 points after conceding three points.

The ICC T20I Championship table is extremely tight with only eight points separating the top eight sides. With a number of Twenty20 Internationals to be played in the lead up to the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016, there is likely to be plenty of reshuffling at the top of the order.

NZ-Pak series schedule:

 

15 Jan – 1^st T20I, Auckland

17 Jan – 2^nd T20I, Hamilton

22 Jan – 3^rd T20I, Wellington

 

ICC T20I TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (as on 11 January, after the conclusion of Afghanistan-Zimbabwe and New Zealand-Sri Lanka series, and before the start of New Zealand-Pakistan series)

 

RANK TEAM             POINTS

1          West Indies      118

2          Australia          118

3          Sri Lanka         118

4          England           117

5          South Africa    115

6          Pakistan           114

7          New Zealand   114

8          India                110

9          Afghanistan     80

10        Bangladesh      69

11        Scotland           66

12        Hong Kong      61

13        Netherlands     61

14        Zimbabwe        50

15        Ireland             42