England have slipped to the bottom of the World Test Championship standings after Sri Lanka completed a 328-run thrashing of Bangladesh inside four days in Sylhet.

Although England have prevailed in three of their 10 Tests, with Sri Lanka gaining a first triumph in three fixtures in the 2023-25 cycle, teams are ranked according to the percentage of points won.

Hindering England’s progress was a 19-point deduction for slow over rates in four of last year’s five Ashes Tests, which finished 2-2. England began 2024 with a 4-1 series defeat in India.

Had that points penalty not been applied, England, third in the International Cricket Council Test rankings behind India and Australia, would sit in fifth place in the the nine-team World Test Championship.

Ben Stokes’ side have a dozen matches remaining before the final at Lord’s in June 2025, starting with three-Test series at home against both the West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer and winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand before the year is out.

England have failed to reach the final in either of the first two editions, finishing fourth in the 2021-23 cycle – having languished at the bottom of the table for a period before the appointment of Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach.

Key: Flintoff would make ‘excellent’ head coach

Andrew Flintoff has been tipped as a future England head coach by director of men’s cricket Rob Key.

Key has been integral in offering the 2005 Ashes hero a path back from showbusiness to elite sport after the former captain suffered serious facial injuries in a car crash while filming television show Top Gear.

Flintoff will be leading Northern Superchargers in The Hundred this summer and has been inked in to assist Matthew Mott at the T20 World Cup in June. Both tournaments are live on Sky Sports. “Without question, I think he would be an excellent head coach,” Key told the Daily Telegraph.

“He will be a worthy candidate going forward. When that time comes and whoever is in this job, and it might be outside of my time, they would be stupid not to look at him.

“It is almost like he has no choice. It is what he thinks about the most after his family.”

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