WTC standings after Ashes slow over-rate penalties

As many as 29 points were deducted from Australia’s and England’s World Test Championship (WTC) points tally as slow over-rate penalties. England suffered a deduction of 19 points while 10 points were deducted from Australia. In this article, we will take a look at the WTC standings after slow over-rate penalties were levied.

England suffers after an exciting Ashes

After one of the greatest Ashes series of all time, England suffered a lot more than their counterpart as slow over-rate penalties were charged. England received a two-point deduction for the first test, received a nine-point deduction for the second test, received a three-point deduction for the fourth test and also received a five-point deduction for the fifth test. England naturally will play more home games where the conditions will assist the pacers more than the spinners. So maintaining a good over-rate will be difficult for them.

Australia lucky to receive just a 10-point deduction

Australia is lucky to just have received a 10-point deduction for slow over-rate for the fourth test. How are they lucky? They have Bazball to thank for it. England’s style of Bazball play meant that at times Australia would have to bowl less than 80 overs for an England batting innings. In the first test, Australia bowled 78 overs before England made a bold declaration on Day 1. The new rules regarding slow over-rate penalties state that if a team bowls less than 80 overs then they would not have to face any slow over-rate penalties. If the England team had batted two more overs Australia would have received a two-point deduction for that match. In nine bowling innings, Australia only had to bowl more than 80 overs thrice.

Usman Khawaja’s reaction

After the penalties were announced by ICC, Usman Khawaja took to Twitter to express his views on the penalties.

Don't even get the chance to bowl in the second innings at Manchester due to 2 days of rain and @ICC still issue fines and take 10 WTC points of us for slow over rates! That makes a lot of sense… 🤦🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/NKuGI61n2n

— Usman Khawaja (@Uz_Khawaja) August 2, 2023

In his tweet, Khawaja questioned the logic behind the fines for the fourth test. Australia had bowled only once during the test as rain had washed out almost two days of cricket. But the bigger question that arises is if the rain would have not interrupted the game would Australia have benefited from the match?

Australia scored 317 runs in 90.2 overs in their first innings and in reply, England scored 592 runs in just 107.4 overs. In the third innings, Australia were 61 runs behind at the loss of five wickets when the rain interrupted. If the rain had not interrupted it is highly unlikely that Australia would have avoided a loss and there would have been chances that Australia would have worsened their over-rate if they had to bowl at England once again.

Would genuinely be fascinated to hear how Khawaja thinks the Old Trafford Test would have played out had it not rained. Australia score 600, put England back in to bat, bowl 17 overs an hour and skittle them out?

— Ben Gardner (@Ben_Wisden) August 2, 2023

WTC standings

Position	Team	PCT (%)	Points	Series	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn
1	Pakistan	100	24	1	2	1	0	0
2	India	66.67	16	1	2	1	0	1
3	Australia	30	18	1	5	2	2	1
4	West Indies	16.67	4	1	2	0	1	1
5	England	15	9	1	5	2	2	1
6	Bangladesh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	New Zealand	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Sri Lanka	0	0	1	2	0	2	0