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Shivnarine Chanderpaul (centre)and Aaron Redmond (left) talk to umpire Billy Bowden in between overs, on the first day of the New Zealand XI and West Indians Tour match at Lincoln, in thisNovember 27 file picture.
Dunedin, New Zealand: West Indies and New Zealand begin their three-Test series today in Dunedin with an aim to improve their ratings points on the Reliance International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Team Rankings Table.
Despite the results there will be no change in West Indies’ final position on the table, except to reduce the gap with Australia.
West Indies enter the series in sixth position on 95 ratings points, while New Zealand starts off in eighth place with 75 ratings points.
If New Zealand was to win the series by a margin of 2-0, it can rise up to 82 ratings points, while a 3-0 series sweep will hand the home team a rise of eight ratings points to thereby finish at 83, according to the ICC.
In both scenarios (New Zealand winning 2-0 and 3-0), West Indies will move down to seventh place behind Sri Lanka.
If New Zealand win the series by either 1-0 or 2-1, or even if the series is drawn 0-0 or 1-1, there will be no change in West Indies’ final position on the table.
For the West Indies, the series offers an opportunity to reduce the gap with fifth-ranked Australia. But this can only happen if it wins the series by either a 2-0 or 3-0 margin.
If West Indies win the series by a 2-0 margin, it will gain two ratings points to end at 97, to thereby reduce the gap with fifth-ranked Australia to four ratings points. A 3-0 series win, will give West Indies a gain of four ratings points, thereby reducing the gap with Australia to just two.
With the top four sides as of December 31, 2016 qualifying for the inaugural ICC World Test Championship scheduled for 2017, every Test counts towards the qualification.
Meanwhile, New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson has been ruled out of the opening Test with an injured thumb.
His withdrawal opens the way for Aaron Redmond to return to the side after a five-year absence.
Williamson, who bats at number three, fractured his left thumb playing against Bangladesh in late October, and captain Brendon McCullum said it was always going to be a close call whether he would be fit for the first West Indies Test.
“It was a tough decision, but in the end it was a touch too early for Kane,” said McCullum when he named the playing eleven yesterday.
“He probably could have played, but in the grand scheme of the season we’ve got in front of us and how valuable he is to us, we saw it as a more safe option to let him miss this one out and have another week to recover.”
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (capt.), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Peter Fulton, Aaron Redmond, Hamish Rutherford, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Doug Bracewell.
West Indies: Kieran Powell, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy (capt), Shane Shillingford, Tino Best, Shannon Gabriel. AGENCIES
