Pakistan's decline after 27 months at number one in the world T20

Pakistan's decline after 27 months at number one in the world T20

The ICC has released its T20 world rankings today in which Pakistan has not been able to maintain its first position.

Instead, Australia topped the short-form world rankings for the first time.

Pakistan had maintained the world number one ranking of T20 for 27 months but in the new ranking it has now moved to the fourth position.

England is second and India is third.

It is noteworthy that Australia has not only secured the first position in the world rankings of T20 but it has also secured the first position in the world rankings of Test cricket by pushing India beyond.

This change in the world rankings is reflected in the ICC's annual update. The update is released on May 1 each year, ranking the teams based on 100% performance over the past year and 50% over the previous two years.

Since when was Pakistan number one in the world?

The T20 World Rankings were first introduced in 2011. Pakistan first became the world number one in T20 in November 2016 but New Zealand snatched the position from it.

However, in January 2018, Pakistan won the series 2-1 against New Zealand and regained the first position, after which it maintained this position for 27 months.

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How did Pakistan's position come under threat?

T20 has always been Pakistan's favorite format in which its overall performance has been good. From 2016 to 2018, Pakistan performed brilliantly and won 11 consecutive series. All these achievements were achieved under the leadership of wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed who is the most successful captain of Pakistan in terms of victories in T20 Internationals.

2019 has been a disappointing year for Pakistan. Led by Shoaib Malik, it suffered a two-one defeat in the series against South Africa.

After that, under the leadership of Sarfraz Ahmed, he first failed in the only match against England and then the Sri Lankan team defeated him by three wickets. After this result, Babar Azam was made the captain in place of Sarfraz Ahmed.

Pakistan would have lost the world number one T20 rankings during the tour of Australia if the first match had not been rained out and Australia would have won the series 3-0 instead of 2-0.

Pakistan's first position was threatened when Pakistan continued the Australia series as well as the New Zealand and England series and the world number two England had a golden opportunity to become the world number one but England lost two matches. As a result, Pakistan's first position was safe at that time.

The Pakistani team won its last series against Bangladesh by three wickets but on the other hand, the performance of Australia was very impressive as they have won seven of the last nine matches.

Now observers are declaring Australia the favorite team for the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Australia in October-November this year.