Srinagar: Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam
has suffered major drop in ICC Test batting Rankings with the former Pakistan captain dropping out of Top 10 owing to failure in the Test series vs Bangladesh.
Babar has lost three places and is now at No.12 with 712 points.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Rizwan is the best-ranked Pakistan’s Test batter, staying at the 10th position.
Middle-order batter Saud Shakeel has dropped to 20 from 13 while Salman Ali Agha gained nine positions, moving to 31 from 40.
Joe Root’s dream run with the bat has helped the England batter to an even bigger lead in the ICC Test Batter Rankings after back-to-back centuries in the second Sri Lanka Test.
Root (922 rating points) now leads by 63 points over New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, and the England right-hander has an opportunity to break his own personal best mark, just one point away from the 923 rating he attained in July 2022 after a century against India at Edgbaston.
Just three English batters boast better career highs for Test batters: Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs and Peter May.
Despite his exploits in the second Test against Sri Lanka, Root was overshadowed by Gus Atkinson, whose Player of the Match efforts with bat and ball led to dramatic jumps across all Ranking disciplines.
After becoming just the third player in Men’s Test history to score a century and claim a five-wicket haul at the hallowed venue, Atkinson moved up 48 spots, into the top 20 for All-Rounders, and into the top 30 for bowlers.
Whilst on the wrong side of the result at Lord’s, there were positive moves for a number of Sri Lanka players in the latest update.
Half-centuries for Kamindu Mendis moved him up 11 spots and into 25th (635), while an eight-wicket performance from Asitha Fernando propelled the seamer into the top ten for the first time (8th, 734).
Over in Pakistan, Bangladesh’s clean sweep series win saw several Tigers gains.
Rescuing Bangladesh’s first innings, at one stage in peril at 26/6, Litton Das’s 138 helped the team to a first innings 262, and him to a 12-place push to 15th on the batting rankings. His partner in the seventh-wicket partnership of 165, Mehedy Hasan Miraz, moved up to 75th place with the bat, and his figures of 5-61 in Pakistan’s first innings pushed him up to 7th in the all-rounders list.
On the bowling side, Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana moved to career-best rankings.