England’s woes are not yet over as they have now been ranked sixth, with 88 points, in the latest ICC Test ranking. The ranking, which is their worst in 27 years, comes as England has won just 1 out of their past 17 Tests. Australia leads the ranking with 128 points, followed by India with 119 points, while New Zealand closely follows with 111 points. England is wedged between Pakistan at fifth place with 93 points and Sri Lanka with 81 points at seventh place.
These past months have been particularly bad for England. They have been losing Tests both home and abroad and have shown no sign of improvement so far. The loss to Australia at the Ashes last December was one event that showed how bad things were with the England cricket. This led to a series of resignations and dismissals. Key positions, such as the director, coach, and even the captain of the Test squad, have been affected by the change. Although the team does not have a new coach yet, Rob Key is the current director, with Ben Stokes as the new skipper of the team.
Speaking with the media recently, Stokes admitted that England’s recent results were not encouraging and that he aims to make the Test squad great again: “Being completely realistic, winning one game in 17 is nowhere near good enough for the people we have in our team. We can look at that and go there is only one to go, which is up.
“We have not been good enough. That is not a dig at any individual, as I have been part of that. As a team, we know we have not been good enough, not played to the standard we know we can.
“It’s about understanding that and fixing it, but we need to understand things won’t happen overnight. I can’t just expect it to click, and all of a sudden, we are No 1 in a year’s time.
“I am very excited about the role of hopefully making the England Test team great again. It’s a big goal of mine.”
England cricket has a lot of work to do, and they realize that. The key changes they have made might have some impact, but we can only wait to see how good things can get.
Written by: Leon Osamor
