Star England batter Joe Root became the top batter as the International Cricket Council (ICC) updated player’s rankings on Wednesday. “Joe Root’s dream run with the bat has helped the England batter to an even bigger lead in the ICC Test Batter Rankings,” ICC stated in a statement. Consecutive tons for Root led him to extend his lead atop the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings. Root (922 rating points) now leads the chart by 63 points over New Zealand’s Kane Williamson.
Even after his stupendous performance against Sri Lanka in the second Test, Root was overshadowed by Gus Atkinson, whose Player of the Match efforts with bat and ball led to dramatic jumps across all Ranking disciplines.
After becoming just the third player in Men’s Test history to score a century and claim a five-wicket haul at the hallowed venue, Atkinson moved up 48 spots, into the top 20 for All-Rounders, and into the top 30 for bowlers.
Even after conceding defeat two defeats in the three-match series against England, there were positive moves for a number of Sri Lanka players in the latest update in the rankings. Half-centuries for Kamindu Mendis moved him up 11 spots and into 25th (635), while an eight-wicket performance from Asitha Fernando propelled the seamer into the top ten for the first time (8th, 734).
Over in Pakistan, Bangladesh’s barnstorming clean sweep series win saw several Tigers gains.
Rescuing Bangladesh’s first innings, at one stage in peril at 26/6, Litton Das’ 138 helped the team to a first innings 262, and him to a 12-place push to 15th on the batting rankings. His partner in the seventh-wicket partnership of 165, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, moved up to 75th place with the bat, and his figures of 5-61 in Pakistan’s first innings pushed him up to 7th in the all-rounders list. On the bowling side, Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana moved to career-best rankings.
West Indies’ last T20I with South Africa and the Dutch T20I tri-series with the USA and Canada, meanwhile, led to minor shuffles in the rankings for the shortest format.
The Caribbean batter Nicolas Pooran’s score of 35 from 13 balls pushed him up to eighth in the Batting Rankings (668), while teammate Shai Hope continued his run to move 32 spots up to 40th. Protea Aiden Markram joined Pooran into the top 10 with a one-spot move (641).
American all-rounder Harmeet Singh jumped 48 spots in the most noteworthy move on a bowling front, and also climbed 19 spots to 40th in the All-Rounder Rankings.
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