The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently released the updated ICC Men’s Test Player rankings and some major changes have taken place in the rankings.
Following Pakistan’s defeat to Bangladesh in the two-match test series, Pakistani batter and seasoned campaigner Babar Azam, who had a horrible outing with the bat has dropped out of the top 10 ranks in the recently updated ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings.
The right-handed batter has dropped by three spots in the rankings and is now sitting at the 12th position with 712 points next to his name.
Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman, Mohammad Rizwan on the other hand has now become Pakistan’s best-ranked Test batsman, sitting on the 10th spot.
Middle order batsman Saud Shakeel has dropped by seven places to 20th from the 13th spot while his fellow countrymen Salman Ali Agha has made a gain of nine spots, rising 31 from the 40th position.
On the other hand, England’s former Test skipper Joe Root, who is having a dream-run with the bat in the longest format of the game is sitting comfortably at the top of the test-batting rankings and he has extended his lead at the top after scoring consecutive hundreds in the second test-match against Sri Lanka.
Root (922 rating-points next to his name) now holds a lead of 63 points over second placed Kane Williamson, and the English right-handed batter has a chance of breaking his previous best mark of 923 he set two years ago in the month of July, after scoring a hundred against the Indian in Edgbaston.
Despite scoring two centuries in the second test match against the Sri Lankans, Root got outshined by his teammate Gus Atkinson, whose all-round efforts with both bat & ball led to him making a huge jump in the Test All-Rounder and bowling rankings.
Atkinson, who became the third-player to pick up a five-wicket haul and score a century in the same match in the longest format of the game, made a jump of 48 spots in the top 20 ranks in the All-Rounder rankings and he also entered the top 30 in the bowling rankings.
For more information, visit the official website of ICC