Dubai, Oct 3 (Agency) Australia have maintained their healthy lead at the top of the ICC Women’s T20I Rankings following the yearly update made by the ICC. The reigning ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and ICC Women’s T20 World Cup champions hold a commanding lead over their closest challenger, with England remaining in second place and some18 rating points behind when the new rankings were updated by the ICC at the start of October. Australia have since played a further two T20I matches against the West Indies and their lead at the top of the rankings is now down to 15 rating points, an ICC report on Tuesday said.
The new rankings reflect all series completed since October 2020, with those completed prior to October 2022 weighted at 50 per cent and subsequent series weighted at 100 per cent.Sitting behind Australia and England are New Zealand (third), India (fourth), South Africa (fifth) and the West Indies (sixth), with Sri Lanka (seventh) overtaking fellow Asian country Pakistan (eighth) in the only change inside the top 10. Papua New Guinea (11th) jump in front of Zimbabwe (12th), while European country Spain are the biggest improvers with a five-spot rise to 35th.