KARACHI, Aug 1: Pakistan lost ground in the ICC Test Championship while world champions Australia, England and India all improved their ratings as a result of the annual update that took place on Monday. Pakistan have slipped by two places to seventh after losing five points in the latest ratings sine the series played before Aug 1, 2002, no longer count towards Test rankings.

Australia currently has the highest rating since a new system of calculation was introduced in June 2003.

Their tally of 133 points is one point higher than it was before the update and can improve to 138 if Australia whitewash England in the ongoing Ashes series.

England improved their rating by three points since the tricky calculations wiped out their defeats to Australia and India during between Aug 1, 2001 and July 31, 2002.

In the same period, India lost three series — all away —to Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. The update benefited the Indians by four points to have their best rating since the new system became operational.

New Zealand, who have now swapped places with Pakistan, have benefited most from the update, climbing from seventh to fifth, while South Africa move up from sixth to fourth despite remaining unchanged on 100 points.

But the Proteas have taken advantage of the falling ratings of Pakistan as well as Sri Lanka, who suffered a four-point loss.

Meanwhile, the gap between low-rated Zimbabwe and Bangladesh closed by one point (from 25 to 24) with the Zimbabweans falling by 11 points.

The Bangladeshis, in fact, picked up a rare point.

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