Dubai, Oct 1 (PTI): The Indian women's cricket team stands fourth in the latest ICC team rankings with the new innovative multi-format system brought into place.
The new rankings system will incorporate the results of T20, ODI and Test matches and then come out with a single rating.
Not surprisingly, Australia are ranked number one following its success in the ICC Women's World Cup 2013 in India and the World Twenty20 2014 in Bangladesh. It also leads the ICC Women's Championship, which is the qualifying tournament for the 2017 World Cup.
England are ranked second in the 10-team table, 10 points behind Australia, followed by New Zealand (109), India (105), West Indies (99), South Africa (92), Pakistan (81), Sri Lanka (74), Bangladesh (57) and Ireland (26). Teams will be added to the table as and when they reach the required standard.
The launch of ICC Women's Team Rankings is part of the ICC's long-term commitment to investing, incentivising, promoting and publicising women's cricket, which has already started to drive substantial increase in public interest and participation as well as a marked improvement in the standard of the international game.
The world's fourth-ranked batswoman and the Indian captain, Mithali, Raj said: "I am happy to know that the ICC has launched the ICC Women's Team Rankings. There will now be added context when the sides play in bilateral series as victories will not only edge teams closer to the ICC Women's World Cup but will also be rewarded in terms of improvement in rankings.
"For India, the aim is simple and straight qualify for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017 and, in the meantime, top the rankings. It will be challenging but not impossible, and if we continue to work hard, I don't see why we can't achieve these objectives."
The annual update of the team rankings, in which the oldest results will be dropped from rankings and the weightings updated, will be carried out on October 1 each year, whereas the annual updates for men's Test, ODI and T20I team rankings take place in May.
The team rankings will be updated at the end of each series.