Pakistan’s batsman Azhar Ali and leg-spinner Yasir Shah showed ascent in International Cricket Council (ICC) batting and bowling Ranking despite their team’s 7 wickets loss to Sri Lanka in the second Test in Colombo.
According to latest ranking release by ICC on Tuesday, Azhar Ali who has climbed 7 places to 12th after scoring 26 and 117, which was incidentally the Lahore man’s ninth Test century, while Kaushal Silva has moved up 6 places to a career high 27th after scoring 80.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne has also risen 8 places to 41st after scores of 28 and 50 in Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakarra has dropped one place to fourth, but the biggest mover inside the top 10 is Angelo Mathews who has climbed three places to fifth after scoring 77 and 43 not out.Mathews now holds a 32-point advantage over England’s Joe Root.
Meanwhile, Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah, playing in what was only his ninth Test, claimed match figures of 8 for 151 runs to elevate the 29-year-old five places to a career high ninth in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers and he now lies 10 points behind Rangana Herath who is in eighth place in the rankings.
Dhammika Prasad has rocketed 17 places to a career high 35th after claiming career best match figures of seven for 135. The right-arm paceman is now three wickets short of the 50 mark in his 19 Tests to date.
In what was a strong all-round display by Mathews, the Sri Lanka skipper has also moved up six places to a career high 77th, while Tharindu Kaushal’s five-wicket haul in the first innings has propelled him 28 places into the top 100 for the first time and he now sits in 94th position.
Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan continues to lead the all-rounder rankings on 381 points and he holds a 40 point advantage over South Africa’s Vernon Philander.
The series is poised at one-all as both sides chase victory in the third and final Test which starts in Kandy on Friday.
ICC Test Championship table:
1 South Africa 130
2 Australia 111
3 New Zealand 99
4 India 97
5 England 97
6 Pakistan 97
7 Sri Lanka 96
8 West Indies 81
9 Bangladesh 41
10 Zimbabwe 5 (APP)
