ICC Punishes England For Slow Over-rate vs India, Shastri Says: "Focus On..."

With England being docked two points in the WTC rankings for slow over rate during their thrilling win at Lord's, former India head coach Ravi Shastri said the Ben Stokes-led side can make up for their points deduction if their focus remains on winning matches. On Wednesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said two points have been cut from England's World Test Championship (WTC) tally and have been fined 10 per cent of their match fee. Subsequently, England's tally in the WTC standings has dropped from 24 to 22 out of 36 points, with their points percentage going from 66.67 per cent to 61.11 per cent.

As a result, England has slipped from second to third position in the WTC points table, with Sri Lanka now overtaking them to claim the second spot, and be just behind table toppers Australia.

In context of this, Shastri also pointed how in 2019-21 WTC cycle, Australia were docked four points for their ordinary over rate against India in the 2020 Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

“It hurts as Australia found out in the first cycle of the World Test Championship. They had a slow over rate against India and it cost them the second place and Zealand qualified for that final. So you've got to be fully aware about all this. There'll be certain games where they'll probably make up for it,” said Shastri in a video posted on ICC's Instagram account on Wednesday.

With this still happening at the nascent stage of their WTC cycle 2025-27, Shastri feels England will have a lot of chances to win games and get points which can offset the loss of those two points – starting from the fourth Test against India, which begins on July 23 in Manchester.

"But I think more than the over rate, you have to think of winning. If you focus on winning, then come the last six months, you can probably try and adjust, see how you can get those two points back or something of that sort. But you've got to win, that's more important. Because if you keep winning, that won't matter," he added.

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