Sri Lanka have registered their first win over England in Tests after 10 years chasing down 219 runs at the Oval courtesy of a sensational century from Pathum Nissanka. Even though they lost the three-match Test series 1-2, Sri Lanka have climbed to the fifth spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) points table with this win. On the other hand, England have slipped to sixth position with this loss and their PCT has dropped to 42.18 now.
Sri Lanka had last defeated England way back in 2014 and since then had lost nine and drew one Test before emerging victorious at the Oval. This is their fourth win in eight matches in the ongoing WTC cycle that will culminate next year and have a PCT of 42.18 to show for their efforts.
With India and Australia running away at the top two positions, there is a massive fight now for the third to sixth place in the table. Bangladesh recently jumped to fourth with a 2-0 away Test win over Pakistan and now Sri Lanka have put up a brilliant show to register an away victory increasing their chances of getting close to the top two.
Sri Lanka will now host New Zealand for two Tests later this month and will play their final series of this cycle against South Africa away from home. England, however, are still left with six Test matches - three each against Pakistan and New Zealand - both away from home from October to December.
Coming back to Sri Lanka's win, it is only their fourth win in England and despite being 0-2 down in the series, they came out with intent in both innings to put the hosts under pressure and eventually managed to win the Test match after fighting well in the first two matches.
World Test Championship 2023-25 Points Table
| Rank | Teams | Matches | Wins | Losses | Draw | Points | PCT |
| 1. | India | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 74 | 68.51 |
| 2. | Australia | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 90 | 62.50 |
| 3. | New Zealand | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 36 | 50.00 |
| 4. | Bangladesh | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 36 | 45.83 |
| 5. | Sri Lanka | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 48 | 42.85 |
| 6. | England | 16 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 81 | 42.18 |
| 7. | South Africa | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 28 | 38.89 |
| 8. | Pakistan | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 16 | 19.05 |
| 9. | West Indies | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 20 | 18.52 |
