After his stellar showing in the opening Test against Bangladesh, Pakistan speedster Shaheen Afridi has made his maiden entry to the top five of the ICC Test bowling rankings.
Shaheen claimed seven wickets in the Chattogram Test. His five-wicket haul (5-32) in the second innings came at a crucial time as Pakistan bowled out the hosts for a paltry 157 and then chased down the target of 202 in the fourth innings to win the game by eight wickets.
As a result, Shaheen gained three sports to attain fifth position, overtaking James Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, and Neil Wagner.
Shaheen's new-ball partner Hasan Ali too achieved a career-best position after returning with a similar seven-wicket match haul that included a five-for (5-51) in the first innings. Hasan has moved up five places to 11th position. His previous best in the longest format was 14th, reached in May this year.
Pakistan openers Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique also made a giant stride in the rankings chart for batters. Abid may have missed out on a century in each innings but his scores of 133 and 91 helped him advance 27 slots to a career-best 20th position while Abdullah Shafique enters the rankings at 83rd with scores of 52 and 73.
The weekly rankings update also took into account the thrilling drawn Test in Kanpur between India and New Zealand and the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and the West Indies, which the hosts won by 187 runs.
Shreyas Iyer's Player of the Match effort on Test debut, with scores of 105 and 65, helped him enter the rankings in 74th position while Shubman Gill (up to six places to 66th) and Wriddhiman Saha (up to nine places to 99th) also made notable progress after slamming half-centuries.
Ravindra Jadeja has gained two places to attain 19th spot among bowlers with five wickets in the match and he is also up one place to second among all-rounders. Ravichandran Ashwin is the third-ranked all-rounder and 79th among batters.
For New Zealand, Tom Latham's knocks of 95 and 52 put him back in the top 10 as he moved from 14th to ninth. Lanky pacer Kyle Jamieson is ninth among bowlers, his three wickets in each innings resulted in a gain of six slots. Tim Southee has gained 15 rating points to reach within one point of second-placed Ashwin (840) after his eight-wicket match haul.
Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne's Player of the Match effort of 147 and 83 has lifted him four places to seventh. Former captains Angelo Mathews (up to two places to 23rd) and Dinesh Chandimal (up to four places to 46th) have also made notable gains.
(With ANI inputs)
