How rankings calculated in cricket?

We all know about the ICC rankings but do you know how this points calculated for a batsman? In this article, let's understand how ICC calculates the rating points for a batsman.

In 1987, from the idea of Ted Dexter ICC developed the ranking system to compare players performance.

However, in the initial days ICC just consider the batting average to rate the players. But the disadvantage in the older days rating were so biased as there was no concern on match conditions and the strength of opposition teams. So, ICC came up with a new rating system. where the performances of the batsman is based on multiple factors.

So, in the rating system the batsmen are rated with points between 0-1000. These points may change according to the batsman's form and these points are given to the each player after completion of the match. In this process ICC will consider some of the factors to rate the players.

The Batsman Ranking is decided on the basis of :

1) Runs Scored : which means the more runs a batsman scored, the more points he will get.

2) Ratinga of the opposition bowling attack : which means the points are based on the bowler's strength. The best example for this is the test series between India and South Africa. In this series Rohit Sharma faced some good bowling attack from Kagiso Rabada, Philander and Keshav Maharaj and scored two centuries and one double century. Due to his exceptional batting performance in the series his test rankings were improved from 54th to 10th rank in the ICC Test Rankings for batsman. If the same runs were scored against Zimbabwe or Bangladesh this much of ranking improvement is not possible. Because there is a difference between the South Africa and Bangladesh or Zimbabwe's bowling attack.

3) The level of run-scoring in the match : Considering this factor, the points are given by the runs scored by the batsman in low scoring and high scoring games. Let's take an example, Virat Kohli scored two centuries in both innings of a test match, in the first innings the team's total is 500/10and Kohli's score is 189 and in the second innings the team's total is 250/10 and Kohli's score is 125, now from the both innings ICC will consider the second innings as the most valuable knock because in the first innings he scored a century in batting supported pitch,but in the second innings he scored a century in bowling pitch. So, the batsman will get more points when he bats well on tough conditions.

4)  Out or Not-Out : The Batsman will get bonus points when he remained not out in the match.

5)  Run scoring cause : which means, if a player has scored more runs in a winning cause of his team then he will get bonus points. If he scored against strong team then bonus will be more.

6) Strike Rate : the Batsman will get bonus points along with runs he scored with high strike.

These 6 factors will come into consideration while calculating the rating points for a batsman. All of these calculations are carried out using pre-programmed formulae, there is no human interference in this calculation process.