Published: Jul 16, 2025, 02:27 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 16, 2025, 02:27 PM (IST)
Following India’s loss at Lord’s by narrow margin of 22 runs, England team mist have been very happy as they gained a lead of 2-1 over the visitors. However, their happiness was cut short as the team still got a shock- in the name of slipped down in the World Test Championship (WTC) Table due to a fine of slow over rates during the clash.
This fine was imposed under Article 16.11.2 of the ICC World Test Championship playing conditions, which stated that a side is penalised one point for each over short, and after time allowances were taken into consideration.
After the Lord’s Test, England slipped down to the third position in WTC ranking. The first position is currently secured by Australia following their 3-0 victory against West Indies.
An ICC statement revealed that England team got fined for their offence of slow over rate. “England captain Ben Stokes pled guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction imposed by Richie Richardson of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees. Due to this, there was no need of a formal hearing,” the statement read.
Rest of the team- namely South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan are yet to play their first match in WTC 2025-27 cycle. South Africa recently played against Zimbabwe in a test series- which they won with 2-0 margin- but the series was not counted because Zimbabwe is not a part of the current WTC cycle.
The English team have lost a total of 22 points in their overall World Test Championship record, and even missed the finals for the third consecutive time in their previous cycle.
As of now, with the ongoing series against India, they have a chance to redeem themselves for their offence and recover from their third spot- if they manage to win the remaining matches without getting a penalty. This would greatly boost their ranking and will put them in a strong position from the beginning of this cycle.
