Pakistan's Saud Shakeel broke into the top 10 batters in the newly-released ICC Test rankings. Shakeel went up three places to the eighth spot after Pakistan's convincing win over West Indies in the first Test in Multan. As Shakeel went up, Australia's Steve Smith, Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant and New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell went down one place each.
Pakistan's Babar Azam slipped four places. As a result, Marnus Labuschagne, Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva along with Ben Duckett went up to occupy 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th spot respectively. Pakistan's wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan gained two places to reach the 18th spot. He is tied with Australian opener Usman Khawaja and South Africa's Aiden Markram.
Another Pakistan batter's rating took a hit. Agha Salman slipped five places to 27th. As a result, India's Shubman Gill (22nd), South Africa batter Kyle Verreynne (23rd), Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne (24th), Afghanistan's Rahmat Shah (25th) and India's Virat Kohli (26th) moved up one place each.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (42nd), along with Sri Lanka's Kusal Mendis (44th) and Pathum Nissanka (45th) slipped one place each as Pakistan captain Shan Masood climbed three places to occupy 42nd spot.
Who holds the top spot?
The top spot belongs to England's veteran batter Joe Root (895 points) followed by his teammate Harry Brook (876 points). New Zealand's Kane Williamson is closing in with 867 points. Yashasvi Jaiswal will have a chance to move up in June. Currently, the Indian opener has 847 rating points. Other batters in top 10 are Australia's Travis Head (772 points), South Africa captain Temba Bavuma (769 points) and Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis (759 points).
Slight change in bowling rankings
In the bowling rankings, there was just one change in top 10. Pakistan's left-arm spinner Noman Ali who haunted West Indies batters in Multan moved up two places to ninth. Ravindra Jadeja slipped to the 10th spot whereas Australia's Scott Boland is placed 11th. Both Jadeja and Boland have 745 rating points each. India's pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is way ahead of others with 908 rating points.
Changes expected in next few weeks
Australia and Sri Lanka players will have a chance to move up before the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Australia who have already qualified for the ICC World Test Championship 2025 final will tour Sri Lanka for a two-Test series starting January 29.