Pakistan suffered a shocking loss to England by 74 runs in the first Test played at Rawalpindi Stadium that began on December 1, 2022. It was an impressive performance by Ben Stokes and Co. to produce results in a batting paradise. Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brooks scored centuries as England recorded 657 runs in their first innings.
Pakistan posted 579 runs in their first innings as Imam, Shafique and Babar Azam scored centuries giving England 78 runs lead. England hammered the Pakistan bowling line-up scoring at a run rate of 7.36 runs per over. Ben Stokes made a brave declaration as they set the hosts’ 343 runs target.
Despite Saud Shakeel’s 76, Mohammed Rizwan’s 46, Agha Salman’s 30, Imam’s 48 and Azhar Ali’s 40, Ollie Robinson and James Anderson rattled the Pakistani batting after the tea break. Mohammed Ali and Naseem Shah showed resistance before Leach grabbed the wicket of Shah to bowl out Pakistan for 268. It was aggressive captaincy by Stokes keeping pressure on the hosts batting with short deliveries.
India’s position in the ICC World Test Championship table
World Test Championship #WTC Points Table
England register 7th win in their last 8 matches.
Pakistan's road to final becomes more tricky now, they need to win all 4 of their remaining matches to make a case for final.#ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/bby5CDzMyi— Cricket baba (@Cricketbaba5) December 5, 2022
With this loss, Pakistan’s percentage points slipped to 46.66. India will take on Bangladesh in two-matches Test series, starting on December 14. Rohit Sharma and Co. are currently at the No. 4 spot with 52.08 percent points. They would be hoping to whitewash Bangladesh 2-0 and gain further to move ahead of the points table.
Australia is currently No. 1 in the points table with 72.03 percent points after defeating West Indies by 164 runs in the first Test at Optus Stadium, Perth. Aussies could make it into the finals winning the second Test match at Adelaide and then winning two of their Test matches against South Africa.
India will look to whitewash Bangladesh 2-0 and then produce dominating performance against Australia in the Border Gavaskar series to be played in February- March in India.
Here we look at the latest 2021/23 ICC Test Championship points table as of December 5:
Australia- 72.03 percent points
South Africa- 60 percent points
Sri Lanka- 53.33 percent points
India- 52.08 percent points
Pakistan-46.67 percent points
West Indies- 45 percent points
England-41.67 percent points
New Zealand-25.93 percent points
Bangladesh-13.13 percent points
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