Ravi Shastri: Team has shown steely resolve, unwavering focus to be crowned No. 1

Ravi Shastri. Pic/AFP

India head coach Ravi Shastri has praised his boys for showing grit and determination to finish as the top-ranked Test team after ICC released the team rankings on Thursday.

Taking to Twitter, Shastri wrote: This (India flag) team has shown steely resolve & unwavering focus to be crowned No. 1. It is something the boys have earned fair & square. Rules changed midway but #TeamIndia overcame every hurdle along the way. My boys played tough cricket in tough times. Super proud of this bindass bunch."

The ICC World Test Championship (WTC) finalists India and New Zealand finished as the top two teams respectively in the ICC Men's Test team rankings after the annual update carried out on Thursday.

India gained one rating point for an aggregate of 121 and New Zealand was only one point behind after gaining two points in Thursday's update, which eliminated results from 2017-18. India's 2-1 win over Australia and 3-1 win over England over the past year and New Zealand's 2-0 series wins over the West Indies and Pakistan helped them keep ahead of the pack.

The latest update, which rates all matches played since May 2020 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, also saw England overtake Australia to the third position as England's 4-0 defeat to Australia in 2017-18 was dropped from the rankings.

Pakistan gained three points but remained in the fifth position while the West Indies, who beat Bangladesh 2-0 and drew 0-0 with Sri Lanka in series played this year, moved from eighth to sixth, their best position since 2013. South Africa was in the seventh position, equaling their lowest in Test ranking history, while Sri Lanka was next on the list. Bangladesh lost five points but remained in the ninth position while Zimbabwe gained eight points but was still nine points behind Bangladesh.

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