South Africa puts its number-one Test ranking on the line as it takes on England

• Five-way fight between Williamson, Root, de Villiers, Smith and Warner to finish 2015 as the top-ranked batsman
• Steyn aims to end another year as world’s highest-ranked Test bowler

South Africa will face its stiffest challenge in defence of its status as the number-one ranked Test side in the world when it goes heads to head with England in a four-Test series starting in Durban on Saturday.

South Africa leads sixth-ranked England by 15 points and this difference means it is expected to win the series comfortably. However, its failure to win the series will mean it will drop from the top pedestal for the first time since July 2014.

South Africa will gain five points to rise to 119 points if it wins 4-0, but when the series result is reserved, then it will drop to as low as fifth with England returning into the top four.

To guarantee number-one Test spot at the annual 1 April cut-off date, irrespective of how the Australia-West Indies and Australia-New Zealand series pan out, Hashim Amla’s side needs to win the series against Alastair Cook’s side.

The following are the South Africa-England series permutations:

If SA wins 4-0 – SA 119 pts (1st); Eng 95 pts (6th)
If SA wins 3-0 – SA 118 pts (1st); Eng 96 pts (6th)
If SA wins 2-0 or 3-1 – SA 116 pts (1st); Eng 97 pts (6th)
If SA wins 1-0 or 2-1 – SA 115 pts (1st); Eng 98 pts (6th)
If Eng wins 1-0 or 2-1 – SA 109 pts (3rd); Eng 102 pts (5th)
If Eng wins 2-0 or 3-1 – SA 107 pts (3rd); Eng 104 pts (5th)
If Eng wins 3-0 – SA 106 pts (4th); Eng 105 pts (5th)
If Eng wins 4-0 – SA 105 pts (5th); Eng 106 pts (4th)
If Aus beats WI 3-0 – Aus 111 pts; WI pts 74 (8th)

To find out exactly how the forthcoming series will affect the ICC Test Championship, please clickhere.The Test rankings table is updated after the end of each series.

Meanwhile, the fight for who finishes the year as the number-one ranked batsman in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsman has come down to the wire as only 26 points separate top-ranked Kane Williamson from fifth-ranked David Warner.

While Williamson will be involved in the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, second-ranked Joe Root, third-ranked AB de Villiers, fourth-ranked Steve Smith and fifth-ranked Warner will be aiming to perform strongly in the Boxing Day Tests so that they can finish 2015 in top spot.

Other South Africa and England batsmen likely to appear in the Durban Test and hoping for upward movements include Amla (seventh), Cook (ninth), Faf du Plessis (26th), Gary Ballance (36th), Dean Elgar (40th), JP Duminy (45th), Ben Stokes (48th) and Moeen Ali, who shares 50th spot with Australia’s Usman Khawaja.

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, South Africa’s Dale Steyn will be under pressure to perform strongly in Durban, otherwise he’ll drop from the top spot for the first time since February 2014.

Steyn first achieved the number-one ranking in July 2009 and has finished as the top-ranked bowler each year except in 2013, when Vernon Philander leapfrogged him in December and occupied the coveted position for 56 days.

Steyn’s failure to shine with the ball will hand the number-one ranking to India’s Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin is on a career-high 871 points, just four points behind Steyn.

England’s James Anderson is in third position, 29 points behind, while his team-mate Stuart Broad is in fifth position. Like the batsmen, the top five bowlers are separated by 35 points.

The player rankings will be updated at the end of Durban and Melbourne Tests.

Forthcoming Tests

Australia v West Indies
26-30 Dec – 2nd Test, Melbourne
3-7 Jan – 3rd Test, Sydney

South Africa v England
26-30 Dec – 1st Test, Durban
2-6 Jan – 2nd Test, Cape Town
14-18 Jan – 3rd Test, Johannesburg
22-26 Jan – 4th Test, Centurion

New Zealand v Australia
12-16 Feb – 1st Test, Wellington
20-24 Feb – 2nd Test, Christchurch

ICC Test Team Championship(as on 24 December, before the start of South Africa-England Test series)

Rank Team Points
1 South Africa 114
2 India 110
3 Australia 109
4 Pakistan 106
5 New Zealand 99
6 England 99
7 Sri Lanka 89
8 West Indies 76
9 Bangladesh 47
10 Zimbabwe 5

(Developed by David Kendix)

ICC Test Player Rankings(as on 24 December, before the start of South Africa-England Test series, and Melbourne Test between Australia and West Indies)

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 K. Williamson NZ 889 49.93 893 v Aus at Perth 2015
2 Joe Root Eng 886 54.90 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
3 AB de Villiers SA 881 51.39 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
4 Steve Smith Aus 874 54.61 936 v Eng at Lord's 2015
5 David Warner Aus 863 50.64 880 v NZ at Perth 2015
6 Younus Khan Pak 826 53.94 880 v SL at Lahore 2009
7 Hashim Amla SA 810 50.64 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013
8 Angelo Mathews SL 808 50.18 877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014
9 Alastair Cook Eng 803 47.47 874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012
10 Misbah-ul-Haq Pak 764 48.89 842 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2014

Selected rankings (top 50)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
15 Adam Voges Aus 720*! 76.83 720 v WI at Hobart 2015
25 Darren Bravo WI 631 41.34 709 v Aus at Trinidad 2012
26 Faf du Plessis SA 627 43.19 710 v WI at Port Elizabeth 2014
35 K. Brathwaite WI 556 33.76 591 v Eng at Grenada 2015
36 Gary Ballance Eng 549* 47.76 702 v WI at Grenada 2015
37 Marlon Samuels WI 547 34.27 672 v Zim at Barbados 2013
39 Shaun Marsh Aus 537*! 37.72 537 v WI at Hobart 2015
40 Dean Elgar SA 530* 34.46 558 v Ind at Bengaluru 2015
45 JP Duminy SA 501 32.92 586 v SL at Galle 2014
46 J. Blackwood WI 499* 35.33 575 v Eng at Barbados 2015
48 Ben Stokes Eng 463* 28.58 594 v Aus at Lord's 2015
50= Moeen Ali Eng 462* 27.76 517 v Aus at The Oval 2015
Usman Khawaja Aus 462* 40.05 471 v NZ at Perth 2015

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank Player Team Points Avge Highest Ranking
1 Dale Steyn SA 875 22.56 909 v WI at Centurion 2014
2 R. Ashwin Ind 871! 25.39 871 v SA at Delhi 2015
3= James Anderson Eng 846 28.96 847 v WI at Barbados 2015
Yasir Shah Pak 846*! 24.17 846 v Eng at Sharjah 2015
5 Stuart Broad Eng 840 29.12 852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
6 Josh Hazlewood Aus 792*! 22.65 792 v WI at Hobart 2015
7 Ravindra Jadeja Ind 789*! 23.76 789 v SA at Delhi 2015
8 Trent Boult NZ 787 28.28 825 v Eng at Lord's 2015
9 Vernon Philander SA 746 22.08 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013
10 Tim Southee NZ 731 31.47 799 v WI at Jamaica 2014

Selected rankings (top 50)

Rank Player Team Points Avge Highest Ranking
11 Morne Morkel SA 726 29.30 776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011
15 Nathan Lyon Aus 641 33.78 648 v Eng at Melbourne 2013
16 Peter Siddle Aus 619 30.06 816 v Eng at Old Trafford 2013
19 Kemar Roach WI 611 29.02 774 v SA at Centurion 2014
22 Steven Finn Eng 559 28.58 624 v NZ at Headingley 2013
25 Jerome Taylor WI 530* 33.83 717 v Eng at Jamaica 2009
28 James Pattinson Aus 497* 26.35 573 v Ind at Hyderabad 2013
30 Moeen Ali Eng 485*! 38.14 485 v Pak at Sharjah 2015
42 Ben Stokes Eng 402* 40.44 442 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2015
44 Kyle Abbott SA 383*! 19.10 383 v Ind at Delhi 2015
45 Devendra Bishoo WI 379* 38.05 426 v Ind at Delhi 2011

All- Rounders (top 5)

Rank Player Team Points Highest Ranking
1 R. Ashwin Ind 406 419 v WI at Mumbai 2013
2 Shakib Al Hasan Ban 384 419 v Zim at Khulna 2014
3 Stuart Broad Eng 315 382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012
4 Vernon Philander SA 298*/ 376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
5 Ravindra Jadeja Ind 259*/*! 259 v SA at Delhi 2015