Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket captain Babar Azam and opener Abdullah Shafique have been rewarded with career-high Test rankings following last week’s superlative performances in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka.

Pakistan achieved their second highest run-chase when they scored 344 for six with Babar contributing 119 and 55, while Abdullah scoring 13 and a magnificent 160 not out, said the information made a available here on Wednesday by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

In recognition of these performances, Babar has moved up one place to third in the latest ICC Men’s Player Rankings for Test Batters and is now the only player in international cricket to feature in the top-three across all formats, while Abdullah has vaulted 23 places to break into the top-20 for the first time in 16th position.

Babar already heads the ODI and T20I batting charts, while in Tests, he now trails second-ranked Marnus Labuschagne of Australia by 11 points. The list is headed by England’s Joe Root.

Abdullah by virtue of his 23-place leap, has now become the third Pakistan batter to feature inside the top-20. Apart from Babar, Muhammad Rizwan is occupying 20th position, while Azhar Ali has slipped six places to 24th and Imam-ul-Haq has dropped three places to 64th. Amongst the bowlers, Shaheen Shah Afridi has continued his ascendency and has gained one place in the latest rankings following his four wickets in the first Test. The left-arm fast bowler has leapfrogged India’s Jasprit Bumrah into third position on 836 points.

This is Shaheen’s career-high ranking and compliments his No.3 position in ODIs and 12th ranking in T20Is.

Hasan Ali and Yasir Shah are the other Pakistan bowlers to move in the right direction.

Hasan, who took three wickets in the first Test, has gained one place and is now 13th, while Yasir, who claimed five wickets in his comeback Test, is now 32nd after rising one place.

Muhammad Nawaz, who took five for 88 in the second innings, has returned to Test bowlers’ rankings in 89th position.

Amongst the Test all-rounders, Hasan is 26th, Yasir 31st, Shaheen 51st and Nawaz 87th.

Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, whose 21 wickets rank him joint-third in terms of most wickets after two Tests, has moved up 11 places to 44th position with 481 rating points, the fourth highest by any bowler after two Tests. Narendra Hirwani (519), Alec Bedser (500) and Bob Massie (494) had higher rating points after two Tests.

Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal has gained 11 slots to reach 18th position after scores of 76 and 94 not out while Kusal Mendis (up two places to 47th) and Oshada Fernando (up 11 places to 58th) too have made headway in the Test rankings.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings, South Africa’s Quinton de Kock has progressed two places to fourth after his 92 not out in the third match against England that was washed out by rain, ending the series at 1-1. England fast bowler David Willey has moved up to 23rd position among bowlers.

Performances in the first two matches of the West Indies versus India series were also considered in the latest weekly update. India captain Shikhar Dhawan, who scored a match-winning 97 in the first ODI, has moved up one place to joint-13th while Shreyas Iyer is up 20 places to joint-54th among batters. Fast bowler Mohammad Siraj is in the top 100.

For the West Indies, opener Shai Hope was up three places to 12th after his valiant 115 in the second match while fast bowler Alzarri Joseph has gained two places to reach 16th position after grabbing two wickets each in both matches.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, New Zealand players Glenn Phillips (up three places to joint-27th among batters) and fast bowler Lockie Ferguson (up five places to 35th among bowlers) have made notable progress, as have Ireland bowlers Mark Adair and Joshua Little, who are in 43rd and 44th positions, respectively.