DUBAI – Pakistan skipper Babar Azam continued to rule the ODI battingrankings, but he dropped by one spot in Test rankings released by theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday.
South African players are the major gainers in the rankings as HeinrichKlaasen rose 13 spots to 30th after he hit a brilliant century in theProteas’ impressive victory over the West Indies in the third and finalmatch of the series in Potchefstroom, while Temba Bavuma improves 17 placesto 33rd following his big knock in the second game in East London.
On the bowling side, India pacer Mohammed Siraj copped the brunt of theattack by Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head during the second match of hisside’s ODI series with Australia and as a result has lost his place at thetop of the rankings for ODI bowlers.
Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood – who is absent from the ongoing series inIndia – re-claims pole position ahead of New Zealand left-armer TrentBoult, with Siraj dropping into a tie for third with in-form quick MitchellStarc.
West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph jumps to a career-high rating and 11thplace on the ODI bowling rankings following a strong series against SouthAfrica, while teammate Akeal Hosein (up four spots to 20th) is another bigmover.
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In the Test rankings, Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne holds on to the topspot for Test batters while New Zealand’s veteran batter Kane Williamsonjumped to second place.
Williamson improved a total of 51 rating points on the weekly update tohave a total of 883 points and sit just 32 points behind Labuschagne in thelead as the 32-year-old looks to re-claim the No.1 ranking mantle he heldafter New Zealand’s triumph in the 2021 ICC World Test Championship final.
“It means Steve Smith (third), Joe Root (fourth), Babar Azam (fifth) andTravis Head (sixth) all drop one place, while Sri Lanka skipper DimuthKarunaratne (10th) takes the spot of India captain Rohit Sharma inside thetop 10 after he scored three half-centuries in the series against NewZealand,” reads ICC blog.
