After England defeated Australia by three wickets in the third Test of the ongoing Ashes series, there were notable changes to the ICC Test player rankings, keeping them in the hunt for the little urn.
In the batting rankings, destructive middle-order batsman Travis Head rose two spots to a career-high second position, trailing only New Zealand great Kane Williamson. The southpaw maintained his incredible form in the third Test at Headingley, his first since making a comeback to the Test lineup during the 2021 Ashes series, hitting 39 and 77 runs.
Due to his accomplishments at Headingley, the 29-year-old was able to surpass Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, who both played poorly. After a lacklustre Test on his home pitch, Joe Root also dropped out of the top five and into sixth position, losing to Pat Cummins for 19 and 21 in each of his two innings. However, middle-order batsman Harry Brook and Captain Ben Stokes rose to positions 12 and 18, respectively, in the batting rankings, as a result of their respective match-winning scores of 80 and 75.
In terms of the bowlers, seasoned pacer Stuart Broad climbed four ranks to No. 6, while Player of the Match Mark Wood climbed nine spaces to No. 26 to enter the top 30. Sole Mitchell Starc, who moved up three spots to 11th, and skipper Pat Cummins, who remained in second position, were the Australia bowlers’ sole gains.
Indian off-spinner No.1 Ravichandran Ashwin, will want to further establish his dominance in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, which gets underway on July 12.
Players from Sri Lanka advance in the ICC ODI rankings
During the final stages of the ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, a few Sri Lankan players raised their ODI rankings. The island nation had a berth in the October main competition after winning all eight of its games throughout the campaign, including the final against the Netherlands.
Pathum Nissanka, the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer with 417 runs in eight innings at an average of over 70, moved up nine positions to joint-29th.
After taking 21 wickets in the Qualifiers to finish as the second-highest wicket-taker behind colleague Wanindu Hasaranga, mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana shot up 13 ranks to 19th.
The recently finished Afghanistan-Bangladesh ODI series, which the Afghans won 2-1, has caused minor changes in the standings. In the ODI batting rankings, centurions Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran respectively made substantial progress to enter the top 20 and top 50.
On the most recent bowler rankings, champion spinner Rashid Khan rose three positions to No. 4, while left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) rose from 91st to 33rd.
The top slot in the ODI rankings remained unchanged, with Rassie Van van Dussen and Mohammed Siraj still trailing Babar Azam of Pakistan and Josh Hazlewood of Australia.
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The post Travis Head jumps to second spot on the ICC Test batting rankings; Ravichandran Ashwin maintains top spot in the bowler rankings appeared first on SportsUnfold.
