Rabada back as No 1 in ICC Test Bowling Rankings

Dubai: South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has regained the number position in the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings after finishing with nine wickets in the first match of their ICC World Test Championship series against Bangladesh in Mirpur.

The 29-year-old, who became the fastest to 300 Test wickets on the first day of the Test match, has overtaken Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood to take the top spot after helping his team win the match by seven wickets.

Rabada had first topped the rankings after the Newlands Test against India in January 2018 and held the top spot for much of the next 12 months.

In the latest weekly rankings update that also considers performances in the third Test between Pakistan and England in Rawalpindi and the second Test between India and New Zealand in Pune, left-arm spinners Noman Ali of Pakistan and Mitchel Santner of New Zealand have also made huge progress.

Noman is in the top 10 for the first time, moving up eight slots to ninth position after finishing with nine wickets in Rawalpindi as Pakistan won by nine wickets to clinch the WTC series 2-1.

Santner, whose haul of 13 for 157 in the 113-run victory in Pune is the third-best by a Kiwi bowler after Richard Hadlee’s 15 for 123 and Ajaz Patel’s 14 for 224, has progressed 30 slots to 44th position, five places off his career-best 39th position attained in January 2017.

Other bowlers to advance include Bangladesh’s Taijul Islam (up three places to 18th), England’s Gus Atkinson (up two places to 22nd), Pakistan’s Sajid Khan (up 12 places to 38th) and South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder (up nine places to 50th).

In the batting rankings, India opener Yashaswi Jaiswal is back at number three after scores of 30 and 77 while other left-handers Saud Shakeel of Pakistan and Rachin Ravindra of New Zealand have moved into the top 10 for the first time in their careers.

Shakeel has advanced 20 slots to reach seventh position after his knock of 134 won him the Player of the Match award while Ravindra is up eight places to 10th with a useful half-century in the first innings.

New Zealanders Devon Conway (up eight places to 28th), Tom Latham (up six places to 34th) and Glenn Phillips (up 16 places to 45th), England’s Jamie Smith (up seven places to 37th), Pakistan captain Shan Masood (up five places to 57th) and Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz (up nine places to 63rd) are other significant gainers in the batting rankings.

Mehidy has also moved up two places to third position in the all-rounders’ list, while India’s Washington Sundar has re-entered the rankings in 53rd position among bowlers, 84th among batters and 25th among all-rounders.

After the recent Test results, New Zealand are fourth in the ICC World Test Championship table with 50 percentage points and the potential of going up to 64.29 with one more match remaining in the series against India and three home Tests against England.

India lead with 62.82 percentage points but have a challenging five-match away series against Australia, who are a close second at the moment with Sri Lanka in third position.