Cricket is one of the oldest sports globally, which traced back in date to the 17th century. The first format in which cricket was played was test only. Thus the test is the highest and most prestigious level of cricket format among other ones. The teams that have gained the test status can only play the test matches in cricket. To learn more about best test teams in cricket, keep reading below.
Gaining Test Status
The ICC or the International cricket council is the board that regulates and has the authority to give the test status to the cricket-playing nations. Currently, there are over 100 nations that are members of ICC, but they are divided into two groups of full and associate members. Twelve countries are working as full members and 92 countries as associate members. So ICC gives the status of playing test cricket, and full members can play test cricket. The associate countries play the intercontinental cup organized by ICC, similar to test cricket. So the nation that wins the intercontinental cup gets the chance to playtest cricket with full members. If they can beat them, the ICC gives them the test playing status, adding their name to the playing status list.
Teams With Test Status
England and Australia are the two oldest teams to start playing test cricket. They played their first test against each other in the late 18th century, and since then, they started touring each other countries to play a series of test matches. This was marked as the starting of the biggest rivalry in test cricket, and the test match series played among England, and Australia is called The Ashes. Twelve countries currently have the status to play test cricket. The teams are:
- England
- Australia
- South Africa
- New Zealand
- West Indies
- India
- Pakistan
- Sri Lanka
- Zimbabwe
- Bangladesh
- Afghanistan
- Ireland
The latest team which have gained the test status is Afghanistan on 14 June 2018. England and Australia go their status on 15 March 1877.
Current No 1 Test Cricket Team
If you are talking about the cricket team, which is number one in the current test ranking, the team is Australia. Australia came to the top of the list in test cricket after defeating England in the Ashes of 2021. They beat England with the four-nil, and Australia showed their dominance in the test cricket by topping the list. They have 2736 points in 23 test matches which helped them climb to the top of the ICC test ranking list.
Three of the Australian batsmen are in the top batsman list, which is why they have been successful in test cricket so far. They have a great talent in both batman and bowlers, and some of them keep emerging and play great cricket to help their team win the matches. Australia always has been known to play aggressively in test cricket, and their fielding tactics have earned them fame in world cricket. They also have dominated in the Ashes by winning more series than England.
Top Five Teams With Most Wins
Here are the lists of the top five teams with the most wins in test cricket since they started playing test matches. This helps people understand which the best test team of all time is. The teams on the list are:
Australia
Australia also tops the list with 393 wins in test matches, which is the highest by any team. Since their first test matches won, they started well in international cricket by winning. So far, they have played 830 test matches in their career and have a win percentage of around 47%, which is impressive. Australia also has set the record for winning the most number of Test matches consecutively in a row. They won sixteen test matches in a row between 1999-2001.
England
The England cricket team with 374 test matches wins their test cricket history to the second of the list. England has played a total of 1028 tests in which they played draw 349 times. Also, they are the first country to play over 1000 test matches in history. Most of their win has come in the home ground playing in England.
West Indies
The third team on the list is the West Indies, and they have managed to win 175 matches since they got their test status. They played a total of 548 test matches and dominated test cricket during the 70s and 80s. But since then, they were not able to regain their position in test cricket as in their last 50 matches, they have won only eight times. This shows their decline in test performance.