The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the latest edition of the ICC player rankings on Wednesday. A major impact was observed in the ICC Men’s Test rankings following all the full-member nations involved in bilateral series that form an element of the ongoing edition of the World Test Championship 2021-23.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has aced the second position in the ICC Men’s Test rankings for batters after a couple of resilient knocks against England in the third and the final Test at Karachi (78 & 54). Though Pakistan lost the series by 3-0, Azam was truly one of the most impactful batsmen throughout the series.
Australian Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne still leads the batting Test rankings. Labuschagne’s counterpart Travis Head has managed to storm into the top five batsmen in Test rankings after an impressive knock of 92 runs against South Africa in the first Test. He now holds the joint fourth position alongside former England skipper Joe Root who is having a rough patch in the subcontinent and was dismissed for a duck in the third Test.
England players have also gained significantly on their solid series whitewash against Pakistan. Skipper Ben Stokes jumped two spots to the 23rd position, frontline batsman Ollie Pope inched a rank ahead on the 28th spot whereas Player of the Series Harry Brook moved up 11 places to the 44th position in the batting rankings. Notably, Brook managed to enter the Top 50 for the first time in his career.
ICC Men’s Test Rankings: Indian batters make massive gains
Meanwhile, red-ball giants India is also busy with their tour to Bangladesh. They defeated Bangladesh by 189 runs in the first Test. Veteran Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara scored vital knocks of 90 and 102 to scale up 19 places and secure the 19th position, Gill scored a fascinating century to move 10 places up to the 54th position whereas in-form batsman Shreyas Iyer’s heroic 86-run knock helped him climb 11 places to the 26th position in the batting rankings.
Amongst the bowlers, Kagiso Rabada gained handsomely as he scalped 8 wickets in the first test against Australia to move four places to the third position in the bowling rankings. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also bowled stupendously against Bangladesh and climbed 10 places to the 18th and 19th positions, respectively.
Shakib Al Hasan’s intuitive approach against India helped him to edge past Ben Stokes and claim the 3rd position in the All-Rounders rankings.
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