ICC ranks top 80 nations for T20s

Ever wondered where Papua New Guinea, Sweden or China fall in cricket's world rankings? Wonder no longer after the International Cricket Council expanded its official men’s T20 team rankings to 80.

While all eyes are on the 50-over format and the looming 10-team World Cup, the Twenty20 format is the ICC's format of choice for growing the game around the globe.

Teams like Austria, Botswana, Peru and Mozambique are among the sides that feature in the table, with all nations that have played six matches against other ICC members since May 2016 included.

Pakistan remain top of the tree as the world's No.1 T20 side with 286. They're well out ahead of the next four nations who are all separated by just two points: South Africa (262), England (261), Australia (261) and India (260).

The full 80-team ranking list follows the ICC decision that all men’s T20 matches from January 1 this year would be given international status. As with the ICC women’s T20 rankings, nations need to play at least six matches in the previous four years to remain in the table.

The rankings will be used in the qualification process for the men's T20 World Cup, to be next held in Australia in October and November 2020.

Regional tournaments in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas are still to be played over the coming four months, with the top two teams from Africa and the Americas plus the winners of the Europe and Asia tournaments progressing to a global qualifying tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

Those six teams will meet the UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Zimbabwe in a 14-team round-robin tournament.

The top six teams from that UAE tournament will be joined by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in two groups of four in the first round of the World Cup in Australia.

The top two from each group will advance to the Super 12 stage of the World Cup, at which point the top eight nations begin their campaign for the global T20 prize.

Fixtures for the men's T20 World Cup were released earlier this year, with Australia grouped with Pakistan, New Zealand, the West Indies and two qualifiers in the Super 12 stage.

India, England, South Africa and Afghanistan plus two qualifiers will be in the second group, with the top two from each group progressing to the semi-finals with the World Cup final at the MCG on November 15, 2020.

The expended 80-team rankings list coincided with the ICC's annual update that saw results from 2015-16 season discarded and outcomes from 2016-17 and 2017-18 weighted at 50 per cent.

Those changes saw India slip from second to fifth, while the West Indies slid to ninth, pushing up Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Nepal underlined their growing prominence in the game by moving up from 14th to 11th position while

Full ICC men's T20 Rankings

1 Pakistan 286 points
2 South Africa 262
3 England 261
4 Australia 261
5 India 260
6 New Zealand 254
7 Afghanistan 241
8 Sri Lanka 227
9 West Indies 226
10 Bangladesh 220
11 Nepal 212
12 Scotland 199
13 Zimbabwe 192
14 Netherlands 187
15 Ireland 182
16 UAE 181
17 PNG 172
18 Oman 155
19 Hong Kong 152
20 Namibia 141
21 Qatar 129
22 Saudi Arabia 121
23 Singapore 118
24 Denmark 116
25 Canada 111
26 Jersey 106
27 Kuwait 104
28 Ghana 100
29 Kenya 95
30 Botswana 93
31 USA 84
32 Austria 73
33 Malaysia 73
34 Guernsey 68
35 Uganda 68
36 Germany 64
37 Sweden 58
38 Tanzania 56
39 Nigeria 55
40 Luxembourg 55
41 Spain 53
42 Philippines 48
43 France 45
44 Belize 42
45 Belgium 40
46 Peru 40
47 Bahrain 37
48 Mexico 36
49 Fiji 35
50 Samoa 34
51 Vanuatu 33
52 Panama 32
53 Japan 32
54 Costa Rica 32
55 Thailand 31
56 Argentina 31
57 Hungary 30
58 Mozambique 29
59 Chile 25
60 Malawi 25
61 Israel 25
62 Bhutan 23
63 Finland 22
64 South Korea 22
65 Isle of Man 21
66 Malta 14
67 Bulgaria 14
68 Sierra Leone 12
69 Brazil 12
70 Czech Republic 9
71 St Helena 9
72 Maldives 8
73 Gibraltar 4
74 Myanmar 3
75 Indonesia 0
76 China 0
77 Gambia 0
78 Swaziland 0
79 Rwanda 0
80 Lesotho 0

Note: Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Cameroon and Bermuda have all played matches but did not meet the six-match minimum to be ranked