Sri Lanka vs England: Visitors have a chance to capture No 2 Test rank

England are scheduled to play three overseas Tests against Sri Lanka, which gets underway on Tuesday, November 6 at Galle International Cricket Stadium. Pallekele and Colombo are the hosts for the second and third Test respectively. Following their successful campaigns in the limited-overs fixtures, the Three Lions would be hoping to carry on with their rich vein of form.

Apart from emerging triumphant in the red-ball fixtures, Joe Root and Co have more incentives to gain from the series as well. The Poms will move to the second spot in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test team rankings provided they manage to win the series as per reports in www.dailynews.lk. The Brits are currently placed third with 105 points after South Africa.

A lot of speculated changes

The Lankans are the sixth-ranked team and have the chance of toppling Australia with 102 points to the fifth place. However, for the same to happen, Dinesh Chandimal’s men need to win all the three encounters. New Zealand are also scheduled to play a Test series against Sarfraz Ahmed’s Pakistan and their fortunes depend on how the Lanka-England series pans out.

Pakistan, with 95 points, can move above Australia if they manage to clean-sweep the three-match series. Bangladesh, with 67 points, have the opportunity to dethrone the Windies from the eighth position provided they win all their four Tests against Zimbabwe and Windies respectively in the next couple of months. Virat Kohli’s Indian team is the number one ranked Test team.

They have 116 rating points, 10 points than the Proteas, and it would require some herculean efforts from the other teams to remove India from the helm. Kohli and Co, following their 2-0 whitewash against the Caribbean team, will now lock horns with Australia in four Tests, the first of which starts on Thursday, December 6 at the Adelaide Oval.

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