The International Cricket Council (ICC) has slapped both England and Australia with heavy penalties for slow over-rates after the 2023 Ashes series. Under the revised slow over-rate sanctions, both England and Australia have been fined five per cent and faced a one World Test Championship (WTC) point deduction for every over short. England were found to be 19 overs short across five Test matches while Australia were found 10 overs short. Hence, England, who lost 12 points in the previous cycle, have suffered a deduction of 19 WTC points.
England, who won 28 points from the Ashes series (with two wins and a draw) have just 9 points remaining in their kitty and their points percentage in the current WTC cycle has dropped to 15, which is even lesser than the West Indies, who are yet to win a game.
As per the ICC release England were found two overs short in the first Test at Edgbaston, nine overs at Lord's, three in the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester and five overs in the series finale at the Oval. Australia, on the other hand, didn't complete 10 overs on time in the fourth Test in Manchester and have their points tally drop to 18 and PCT to 30.
Here's what the updated WTC 2023-25 points table looks like:
| Position | Team | PCT (%) | Points | Wins | Losses | Draw | Penalty |
| 1 | Pakistan | 100 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | India | 66.67 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Australia | 30 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -10 |
| 4 | West Indies | 16.67 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | England | 15 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -19 |
| 9 | Sri Lanka | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
England and Australia played a closely fought series with both teams winning two games each and the fourth match at Manchester ending in a dull draw with only 30 overs of play being allowed in the last two days.
