- By Himanshu Badola
- Mon, 26 Feb 2024 03:59 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
World Test Championship Points Table: India consolidated their second spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) table after clinching a five-wicket win against Ben Stokes' England in the fourth Test at Ranchi on Monday, February 26.
With a remarkable victory on the fourth day of the match, India took a 3-1 lead and clinched the five-match series with a match remaining.
India's point percentage jumped from 59.52 to 64.58 following the hard-fought win and they extended the gap with Australia (55%) and Bangladesh (50%), third and fourth-placed teams, respectively.
Checkout the updated WTC Standings:
England, on the other hand, are struggling at eighth with 19.44%, just a spot ahead of bottom-placed Sri Lanka, who are yet to open their account.
It is to be noted that the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team has so far played eight Tests in the current WTC cycle, winning five, losing two, and drawing one match.
England's 'Bazball' approach doesn't seem to have given them improving results on Indian pitches as they lost three straight matches despite kicking off the series with a victory in the Hyderabad Test.
New Zealand are leading the standing with 75 percentage points and have played just four Tests so far.
A total of 12 points are awarded for a win, six for a tie, and four for a draw. Teams are ranked according to the percentage of points.
The top two teams will progress to the final at Lord's in 2025.
India have reached the WTC final both times since the format was launched but suffered defeats in both summit clashes.
They lost against New Zealand in the inaugural championship final under Virat Kohli's captaincy whereas suffered a heavy defeat against Australia in the second edition last year at The Oval in England under Rohit's leadership.
Talking about the match, India successfully chased down the 192-run target with five wickets in hand despite putting up a disappointing batting effort on the fourth day.
Apart from Rohit's 55 and Yashasvi Jaiswal's 39, Rajat Patidar (0), Sarfaraz Khan (0) and Ravindra Jadeja (4) departed cheaply.
The team was bailed out of trouble by Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel as the duo stitched a match-winning partnership 0f 72 runs for the sixth wicket.
While Gill smashed his half-century, scoring 52 Jurel came up with a crucial contribution of 39 runs to help India emerge victorious a few minutes before the tea break.
India have a great chance to further cement their second position if they win the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala, beginning from March 7.
