Sri Lanka has retained its position as the number-one ranked Twenty20 International (T20I) side after the annual update of the Reliance ICC T20I Rankings Table was announced on Thursday.

The annual update was released just two days before Pakistan takes on defending ICC World Twenty20 champion West Indies in a two-match series, starting on 27 July in Kingstown, St Vincent.

At the June ICC Board meeting during the Annual Conference week in London, the ICC Board agreed to change the T20I rankings period from three years to four years.

The ICC Board also decided that the annual update to the Test, ODI and T20I rankings should now take place on 1 May each year, rather than 1 August, to better align with the current international calendar. This change has been incorporated in the latest update, and has been backdated to 1 May 2013.

The updated table now reflects all T20I matches completed after 1 August 2010. All T20I matches played until the start of May 2014 will be added to this table, so that by May 2014, the ratings will be based on just under four years of results.

There are no ranking changes as a result of this annual update and most countries’ ratings change by no more than a point or two.

14 out of the 16 countries with T20I status are ranked, with Afghanistan and Canada yet to play the required eight rated matches. Afghanistan needs to play one more and Canada two more T20 Internationals prior to May 2014 in order to join the rankings.

 

Reliance ICC T20I Rankings (as of 23 July) 

Rank (+/-) Team Rating (+/-)

1 (-) Sri Lanka 134 (+2)

2 (-) West Indies 127 (+1)

3 (-) India 121 (+2)

4 (-) Pakistan 118 (-1)

5 (-) England 113 (-1)

6 (-) South Africa 112 (-2)

7 (-) Australia 103 (+1)

8 (-) New Zealand 102 (-)

9 (-) Ireland 81 (-1)

10 (-) Bangladesh 74 (-2)

11 (-) Scotland 62 (-)

12 (-) Zimbabwe 48 (-)

13 (-) Netherlands 36 (-6)

14 (-) Kenya 34 (+2)

Not ranked as fewer than eight T20I matches played since August 2010

Afghanistan 88

Canada 6

Source: Colombo Gazette (Sri Lanka)