Rabada back on top of Test rankings

Cricket365
November 28, 2018

Jonny Bairstow of England, Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque and Yasir Shah of Pakistan have made impressive gains in the latest ICC Test player rankings following their contributions in their sides’ convincing victories earlier this week.

Bairstow’s 110 and 15 was the cornerstone of England’s 42-run victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo, which gave the visitors a 3-0 series win, Mominul scored 120 and 12 as Bangladesh defeated the Windies by 64 runs in Chittagong for their maiden win over the Caribbean side, and Yasir recorded match figures of 14 for 184 as Pakistan bounced back in Dubai to level the series with New Zealand following an innings-and-16-run victory.

These performances not only earned the three players the match awards, but also reflected in the latest player rankings, which were released Wednesday morning.

Bairstow has returned to the top-20 in 16th place after rising six places, Mominul is now just outside the top-20 in 24th place after moving up 11 places and Yasir is back in the top-10 in 10th position after jumping nine places.

A number of other players have improved their rankings, following impressive performances in the just-concluded Tests.

In the batting table, which Virat Kohli of India continues to lead, Azhar Ali has moved up three places to 12th, Kusal Mendis is 20th (up by eight places), Ben Stokes is 31st (up by five places), Roshen Silva is 48th (up by five places) and Shane Dowrich is 58th (up by seven places).

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Henry Nicholls leads the pack of batsmen who have achieved career-high rankings.

Nicholls is now ranked 17th (up by three places), Jos Buttler is 18th (up by three places), Haris Sohail is 38th (up by 33 places), Babar Azam is 39th (up by 24 places) and Ben Foakes is 50th (up by four places).

In the bowlers’ table, Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has become the number-one bowler after England’s James Anderson lost one per cent of his points for missing the Colombo Test.

This meant Anderson lost nine points and has now dropped eight points behind the South Africa fast bowler.

Apart from Yasir, other bowlers to move up the ladder are: Taijul Islam at a career-high 21st position (up six places), Stokes at 28th (up three places), Devendra Bishoo at 32nd (up two places), Adil Rashid at a career-best 36th (up two places), Jack Leach at 41st (up two places), Lakshan Sandakan at a career-high 45th (up 11 places) and Malinda Pushpakumara at 61st (up 15 places).

BATSMEN (top 10)

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Points	Avge	Highest Rating
1	( – )	Virat Kohli	Ind	935	54.57	937 v Eng at Southampton 2018
2	( – )	Steve Smith	Aus	910	61.37	947 v SA at Durban 2018
3	( – )	Kane Williamson	NZ	876	50.42	893 v Aus at Perth 2015
4	( – )	Joe Root	Eng	807	50.44	917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
5	( – )	David Warner	Aus	803	48.2	880 v NZ at Perth 2015
6	( – )	C. Pujara	Ind	765	49.54	888 v SL at Nagpur 2017
7	( – )	D. Karunaratne	SL	753	37.6	754 v SA at Colombo (SSC) 2018
8	( – )	Dean Elgar	SA	724	41.05	784 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018
9	( – )	Aiden Markram	SA	703*	47.27	759 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018
10	(+1)	Usman Khawaja	Aus	699	43.83	747 v Pak at Sydney 2017

BOWLERS (top 10)

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Points	Avge	Highest rating
1	(+1)	Kagiso Rabada	SA	882	21.71	902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018
2	(-1)	James Anderson	Eng	874	26.98	903 v Ind at Lord’s 2018
3	( – )	M. Abbas	Pak	829*	16.62	838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018
4	( – )	Vernon Philander	SA	826	21.54	912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013
5	( – )	Ravindra Jadeja	Ind	812	23.5	899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017
6	(+1)	Pat Cummins	Aus	784*	23.81	800 v SA at Johannesburg 2018
7	(+1)	R. Ashwin	Ind	777	25.44	904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016
8	(-2)	Trent Boult	NZ	772	28.07	825 v Eng at Lord’s 2015
9	( – )	Jason Holder	Win	758*	28.5	766 v Ind at Hyderabad 2018
10	(+9)	Yasir Shah	Pak	752	28.23	878 v Eng at Lord’s 2016