By Ian Omoro
In England’s eight-wicket victory against New Zealand at Christchurch, Harry Brook’s outstanding 171 in the first innings moved him up to second place on the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings for batsmen, bridging the gap with colleague Joe Root. With his eighth century in Test cricket, Brook reached a career-high rating of 854, cutting the difference between him and Root to only 41 points. The former captain of England suffered a rare setback in the same game, recording his first Test duck in more than two years.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had moved to No. 2 following his 161 in India’s Test victory in Perth, has fallen to No. 4, as Brook has emerged as Root’s closest opponent, and the Australia vs. India Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is taking an extended break between Tests one and two. In Christchurch, Kane Williamson scored 93 and 61 to maintain his third-place ranking.
After dismissing Sri Lanka for 42 in the first innings, South Africa defeated them by 233 runs in the first Test match in Durban. The heroes of that victory are now in the top 10.
Temba Bavuma gained 14 spots and was placed in the top ten at No. 10 after scoring 70 and 113 in that Test. In Durban, Marco Jansen was named Player of the Match for his 7 for 13 and 4 for 73 performances, which moved him up 19 spots to ninth on the bowlers’ standings and to second place, after Ravindra Jadeja, on the all-rounders’ table.
Tristan Stubbs, a batsman for South Africa, advanced 29 ranks to No. 42 after scoring 122 in the second innings against Sri Lanka.
Despite a lackluster performance in Durban, Kamindu Mendis rose two ranks among batters, so it wasn’t all terrible for Sri Lanka. Even though he was the only batter from Sri Lanka to reach double figures with 13 in the first innings and 10 in the second, he was still able to surpass Saud Shakeel and Steven Smith to take seventh position. Meanwhile, Dinesh Chandimal’s 83 in the second inning moved him up two spots to 17th.
In the bowling rankings, Vishwa Fernando of Sri Lanka also made an impression, moving up four spots to 29th. Following their performances against New Zealand, England’s Brydon Carse (up 21 spots to 43rd) and Shoaib Bashir (up four places to 48th) both made progress.
After some outstanding performances in Zimbabwe, Saim Ayub of Pakistan continued to grow, rising 12 ranks to 78th in the ODI batting rankings and 39 spots to 119th in the T20Is.Teammate Abbas Afridi moved up 20 spots to 61st among T20I bowlers, while Zimbabwe’s senior all-rounder Sikandar Raza moved up six spots to 40th in the ODI bowling rankings.
