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England's rating has risen to 1056 points. This is their highest rating since March 1986 and England has now overtaken both Pakistan and the West Indies to claim third place in the Test Cricket Ratings. This is the first time England has been ranked third since August 1986.
For most of the last 14 years, England's Test team has been in the doldrums. In a two-year period starting in March 1986, England slipped from the number two team to sixth place. Their rating over the next 14 years hovered around 1015 points with very little change either up or down.
Allan Border's Australians inflicted England's worst moment during this period in 1989. After losing that series 4-0 England's rating fell to its lowest level (979) since 1911. Of the seven Test nations, only Sri Lanka (904) had a weaker Test cricket team at that time.
In September this year, England claimed a series victory over the West Indies for the first time since 1969. The tour of Pakistan would establish if this was a one-off, or if England had indeed turned the corner.
The tour of Pakistan could so easily have ended in disaster with many things stacked against England. They have been infrequent visitors to the subcontinent; their batsmen are not known as players of spin; and they were well known for fragile batting under pressure.
However, the English batsmen showed that they could play the Pakistan spin attack and compiled innings of around 350 or more runs in each Test. The English were also not cowered by large innings by Pakistan. Their batsmen applied themselves and mostly matched the Pakistani batsmen in each Test.
The first two Tests ended in tame draws as both captains adopted safety first tactics. England, in particular, seemed content to bat at their own pace of around 2.3 runs per over for as long as it took with little consideration of setting the game up for a result.
The lifeless pitches that were produced by Pakistan for this series can carry much of the blame for this. Both the Pakistan and English attacks contain some talented bowlers.
On these lifeless pitches, neither side was able to penetrate or apply consistent pressure on the batsmen while in the field. Only on the last day of the series did the bowlers find something extra to dismiss Pakistan for the lowest total of the series.
Pakistan has now lost four home series in a row and continued their ratings slump that has been evident since March 1998. Pakistan has fallen to be the fourth ranked Test nation with 1053 points. They lead the West Indies (1050) by three ratings points.
Throughout most of the series, Pakistan out-batted the English. They either set imposing first innings totals or managed to answer any English total with an innings of equivalent or larger size. Pakistan also batted at around 2.9 runs per over through the series compared to the much slower English batsmen with 2.3 runs per over. It was not until the final innings of the third Test that Pakistan's batting let them down.
Overall, Pakistan should look to the lack of penetration of their bowlers as the weakness that lost them the series. The lifeless pitches nullified both pace attacks and when it became apparent that the English batsmen could in fact play spin on subcontinental pitches there was little they could do.
With the cancellation of the Indian tour of Pakistan, there was some talk of a tour by Bangladesh. However, at this time no details have been announced. Pakistan has announced a three-Test tour of New Zealand in March 2001.
The latest Test cricket ratings are: 1 Australia (1168); 2 South Africa (1138); 3 England (1056) 4 Pakistan (1053); 5 West Indies (1050); 6 India (1019); 7 New Zealand (996) 8 Sri Lanka (981); 9 Zimbabwe (902); 10 Bangladesh (876 - provisional).
