Now that they have dropped 13 points overall in the 2023–25 cycle, they could finish in last place.
Pakistan’s sluggish over rate during their 10-wicket loss to South Africa in the second Test match in Cape Town has cost them five World Test Championship (WTC) points and 25% of their match fee. After accounting for time allowances, they were determined to be five overs short of their target.
After pleading guilty to the charge brought by on-field umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Nitin Menon, third umpire Alex Wharf, and fourth umpire Stephen Harris, Pakistan captain Shan Masood accepted the sanction from match referee Richie Richardson, negating the need for a formal hearing.Every time a team misses their goal by one over, they lose one point. Pakistan has now lost three points in the 2023–25 WTC cycle. They lost six points after the first Test match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi in August 2024, and two points after the first Test match against Australia in Perth in December 2023.
Pakistan now has 35 points from 12 Test matches in the 2023–25 cycle, down from a possible 48. Their percentage of points contested, which establishes a team’s standing on the WTC table, has dropped from 27.78 to 24.31 as a result of the most recent deduction. With no over-rate deductions, they are still in eighth place, but their points percentage is now just a few decimal places higher than that of the West Indies, who are at the bottom of the nine-team table with a percentage of 24.24.
One of the two remaining series in the 2023–25 WTC cycle is made more intriguing by the deduction. Pakistan is scheduled to host the West Indies for two Test matches beginning on January 16 in Karachi and Multan.
