Mithali Raj wants India to top the new ICC Women's Team Rankings

Raj in action during the 2014 NatWest series

The Indian captain Mithali Raj expressed her happiness over the new women’s team rankings system launched by International Cricket Council (ICC). She said that Indian team will aim to top the rankings.

“I am happy to know that the ICC has launched the ICC Women’s Team Rankings. There will now be added context when the sides play in bilateral series as victories will not only edge teams closer to the ICC Women’s World Cup but will also be rewarded in terms of improvement in rankings,” Raj was quoted saying by the ICC website.

She continued: “For India, the aim is simple and straight - qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 and, in the meantime, top the rankings. It will be challenging but not impossible, and if we continue to work hard, I don’t see why we can’t achieve these objectives.”

The ICC launched the all-inclusive ICC Women’s Team Rankings which integrates all formats of the game into a single list, Australia's supremacy is evident as they are ranked number one in the ratings. They are followed by England who are ten points adrift. Unlike men’s cricket who have independent rankings for each format, the women's hierarchy is a combination of Test, ODI, and T20 results.

Earlier in 2014, the ICC had inaugurated a Women’s Championship in order to provide context to women’s bilateral series. The current move to start a full-fledged ranking system is a significant step forward in their plans to upgrade women’s cricket to the level of their men counterparts.

The innovative system which has been designed by ICC Cricket Committee member David Kendix takes every match in all 3 formats into account and paints an accurate picture of the overall standings.

In a statement, the ICC mentioned, "This means there will be rankings points to play for in every international match, while the volume of matches will ensure the table is a credible reflection of overall performance. The rankings table is based on results between three and four years, but with the first two years being weighted at only 50 percent. Currently, results from October 2012 to September 2014 are weighted at 50%, while results since October 2014 are weighted at 100%."

India are ranked 4th behind New Zealand by a margin of 4 points. Australia's pole position is a consequence of their triumphs in the 2013 World Cup and the 2014 World T20. They also managed to regain the Ashes after defeating their arch-rivals, England.

The Southern Stars’ skipper Meg Lanning said, "It's certainly nice to be recognized as world number one. We've done a lot of hard work in the past few years to win the ICC Women's World Cup and ICC Women's World Twenty, as well as the Ashes recently. We are looking forward to staying at the top of the tree for a long time, which is going to be a big challenge, but we have the players to do that."

Meanwhile, former England captain and Chair of the ICC Women’s Committee Clare Connor appreciated, “These are undoubtedly exciting and historic times for women’s cricket around the world. The increase in participation in the women’s game, the investment by the ICC and its Members and, the exciting calendar of international cricket being played means we are in a position to launch ICC Women’s Team Rankings, which carry real significance across the three formats.”

The ICC Women’s Team Rankings will be updated at the end of each series.

ICC Women’s Team Rankings (as on 1 October 2015)

Rank	Team	Points
1	Australia	134
2	England	124
3	New Zealand	109
4	India	105
5	West Indies	99
6	South Africa	92
7	Pakistan	81
8	Sri Lanka	74
9	Bangladesh	57
10	Ireland	26