Pakistan is ranked number one in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points table for the 2023-25 season after winning the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka on Thursday in Colombo.
Pakistan, with 24 points, lead the points table ahead of India, who are second with 16 points.
Pakistan managed to sit on the first position after a comfortable victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test. Meanwhile, India could’ve been joint-top with their arch-rival but a draw in the second Test against West Indies put them behind.
Teams are positioned on the table in accordance with the percentage of points won in order to standardise the imbalance in the number of matches played.
Teams will lose one championship point for each over short during a match.
World Test Championship Points Table
Pakistan’s next assignment will be against the Aussies — who are currently taking on England in the fifth Ashes Test — in December.
It must be noted that Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by an inning and 222 runs today in Colombo.
Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Nauman Ali wreaked havoc on the Lankan batters and sent seven of them back to the pavilion.
Nauman, 36, made a solid comeback following all the criticism and thrashed the batting line of Sri Lanka after they trailed by 410 runs.
The remaining destruction of the Lankan batters was done by Naseem Shah, who took three wickets in the last overs and made sure that his team left with a big victory.
Pakistan declared their first innings at 576-5 soon after Mohammad Rizwan completed his half-century within starting two overs on the fourth day.
It was Rizwan's eighth fifty in Test cricket. He replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed as a concussion substitute. Sarfaraz, who was unbeaten on 14, was struck on the helmet on the first ball he faced on the third day. He walked off the field following pain in his head.
Meanwhile, on day three, Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique scored his maiden Test double hundred and Salman Agha scored 132 runs as well.