Sri Lanka will start the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh, which runs from 16 March to 6 April, as the number-one ranked side on the Reliance ICC T20I Team Rankings Table, the ICC said.
 
Sri Lanka, runner-up in 2009 and 2012, is atop the table with 129 ratings points, leading number-two ranked and 2007 champion India by six ratings points. In fact, eight ratings points separate the top three sides with 2009 winner Pakistan in third position with 121 ratings points.
 
Sri Lanka launches its campaign on 22 March against South Africa in the Super 10 stage of the tournament at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong.
 
Meanwhile, defending champion West Indies will start off in sixth place with 110 ratings points. West Indies slipped to sixth despite winning the three-match series against England 2-1, while 2010 champion England will enter in eighth position.
 
West Indies will launch its title defence against India on 23 March at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
 
On the table, which is updated until the 14 March T20I between South Africa and Australia, South Africa is fourth, Australia is in fifth position.
 
The tournament opener features host Bangladesh taking on Afghanistan in a Group A match in the first round at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Both Bangladesh and Afghanistan are level on 70 ratings points, but when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point, Mushfiqur Rahim’s side is ranked ahead in 10th place.
 
The tournament also offers an excellent opportunity to Associate teams to move up the ladder.
 
Ireland is the highest-ranked Associate side in ninth position with 91 ratings points, trailing eighth-ranked England by 14 ratings points.
 
In all, 13 of 16 teams ranked on the rankings table will feature in the tournament with the Netherlands in 12th place being the other ranked Associate side apart from Afghanistan and Ireland.
 
The tournament carries a total prize money of US$ three million, with the winning side taking home US$1.1 million and the runner-up collecting US$550,000.
 
Meanwhile, Australia batsman Aaron Finch has moved up two places to claim the number-one position in the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings for T20I batsmen, released on Saturday after his side won the second T20Is of the three-match series to go 2-0 up against South Africa.
 
Finch, who entered the series in third position with 772 ratings points, has gained 25 ratings points after scoring 44 runs in the two matches of the series to go top of the batting table for the first time in his career.
 
Finch has leapfrogged New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum (now second) and England’s Alex Hales in third. Hales himself scored 81 runs in three-match series against West Indies.
 
India, meanwhile, has three batsmen inside the top 10 with Virat Kohli in fourth, followed by Suresh Raina (fifth) and Yuvraj Singh (sixth).
 
The other batsmen inside the top 10 are Martin Guptill of New Zealand in seventh place and Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza (10th).
 
Netherlands’ Michael Swart (22nd) is the highest-ranked Associate Member batsman on the rankings table.
 
Meanwhile, West Indies spinner Samuel Badree has jumped 13 places to a career-best second on the Reliance ICC Player Ranking for T20I bowlers.
 
Badree claimed four wickets in the three-match series against England at an average of 8.25 with a miserly economy of 4.12 runs per over. This effort has helped Badree gain 116 ratings points to help him finish on a best-ever 746 ratings points.
 
This means the defending champion start with two bowlers who occupy the top spots with off-spinner Sunil Narine holding the coveted number-one position. Narine leads Badree by just one point.
 
The top 10 of the bowlers’ table features nine spinners with Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara the lone fast bowler in ninth position.
 
Meanwhile, Ireland left-arm spinner George Dockrell in 12th is the only bowler from the Associate nations to feature inside the top 20 of the bowlers’ table.