Australia drop in ODI rankings

Australia have dropped to fifth in the latest update to the International Cricket Council’s ODI team rankings following their 4-1 defeat to England in the Gillette ODI Series.

England held a 3-1 advantage heading into Sunday’s fifth and final game at Perth’s new Optus Stadium and after the Australia looked on track during the chase, fought back to win by 12 runs and seal a comprehensive series win.

It was enough to see Australia drop from third to fifth in the one-day rankings, but it’s extremely tight between the teams ranked 3-5; Australia on 112 points behind England (116) and New Zealand (115), with the trio well ahead of sixth-ranked Pakistan, on 96 points.

South Africa sit atop the rankings on 121 points, followed by India (119), with the teams set to meet in a six-match ODI series beginning on February 1 in Durban.

India can claim the No.1 spot if they win the series by 4-2 or better, while a draw will be enough to the Proteas to stay top of the tree.

Australia’s next ODI series isn’t until June, when they travel to the United Kingdom to play England.

Speaking after Sunday’s match, Australia captain Steve Smith said something needed to change after losing 11 of their last 13 completed games in the format.

"Starting with the ball and middle-order collapses," said Smith when asked to put his finger on the main issues with the ODI team.

"It's been a trend for us for about 12 months and you just can't afford to do it. You've got to have your top four scoring big runs and doing it consistently day in, day out.

"We haven't been able to do that. We collapse in the middle and don't give ourselves a chance to use the power that we've got at the back end of games.

"We've got some strong boys that can clear the rope at will but we're not getting ourselves in the positions to enable them to do that.

"Something's got to change in that aspect."

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

Australia squad: David Warner (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

England squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Anaru Kitchen, Colin Munro, Seth Rance, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Ben Wheeler. 

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final TBC, Eden Park, February 21