New Delhi: Thanks to their victory over England in the second Test at Visakhapatnam on Monday, the Indian cricket team rose by four spots to sit in the second position in the World Test Championships standings.
Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin shared six wickets between them to help the hosts level the five-match Test series at 1-1. India’s 106-run victory sets up the rest of the series nicely, with the third Test to be played in Rajkot from February 15.
While Bumrah picked up 3-46 in 17.2 overs (ending the match with nine wickets), Ashwin finished with 3-72 in 18 overs to bowl out the chasing visitors for 292 runs. For India, Yashasvi Jaiswal had cracked a double century in the first innings while Shubman Gill relieved pressure from him with a century in the second.
England had won the first Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs. That defeat had seen India pushed down to fifth place in the WTC standings from second spot.
The win at Vizag also helped India reduce the gap between them and the table-topping Australians in the ICC WTC 2023-25 standings. The win in Visakhapatnam pushed India’s point percentage to 52.77, as against 55.00 of Australia.
The top five teams in the WTC standings are separated by a mere 5 percent in point percentage.
India have never won the WTC Final, despite competing in the showpiece finale twice. They lost to New Zealand by eight wickets in the final in 2021 in what was the first-ever WTC Final. Two years later, India lost to the Australians, this time by 209 runs.
Agencies

KR Desk