Joe Root has leapfrogged Marnus Labuschagne to become the top-ranked batter in Test cricket. Josh Hazlewood has replaced Tabraiz Shamsi to claim the No.1 position among T20I bowlers.
A supremely consistent run, which has seen him notch 10 hundreds since the start of 2021, has helped former England captain Root become the top-ranked batter in the ICC Test Rankings. He now has 897 rating points, which helped him overtake Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, who held the No.1 spot since December 2021.
Root has extended his outstanding form in the ongoing three-match home Test series against New Zealand. He got to the 10,000-run mark during his match-winning hundred at Lord’s in the first Test, before scoring 176 in the second Test at Trent Bridge, during which he also surpassed Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 1,0122 in the all-time leading run-scorers charts in the format.
Steve Smith retained his No.3 spot, followed by Babar Azam and Kane Williamson to round off the top-five. Daryl Mitchell, who followed his hundred at Lord’s with 190 and an unbeaten 62 at Trent Bridge, climbed a staggering 33 spots to reach No.17, making him the second-best ranked New Zealand batter after Williamson.
On the bowling front, Trent Boult climbed to No.9 in the rankings, after his five-for at Trent Bridge. Kyle Jamieson dropped three spots to No.6, enabling India speedster Jasprit Bumrah (third), Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi (fourth) and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada (fifth) climb a spot each.
Tim Southee dropped five spots to No.13 in a table which is led by Australia captain Pat Cummins, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin.
As for the ODIs, Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq overtook Virat Kohli to take the No.2 spot. Imam has registered seven straight fifty-plus scores in the format, which is the second-longest such steak ever, after former Pakistan great Javed Miandad’s record of nine. Three of Imam’s fifties came in a 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies at home recently, which fetched him the Player of the Series award.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who too, had six 50-plus scores before falling for 1 in the final ODI against West Indies, retained his No.1 spot. Boult and Shakib Al Hasan are the top-ranked bowler and all-rounder respectively. Oman’s Zeeshan Maqsood, who registered an unbeaten hundred against Nepal and a four-fer against USA earlier this season, climbed 13 spots to sit 10th among all-rounders.
Meanwhile, Hazlewood rose to No.1 in the T20I bowling rankings, following another impressive run in Australia’s 2-1 series win against Sri Lanka last week. He finished the leading wicket-taker in the series with six scalps, while maintaining an excellent economy of 5.4. Hazlewood surpassed South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi and England’s Adil Rashid to the top spot.
The Australian speedster hadn’t played a T20I since the T20 World Cup 2016 until September 2020 and turned out to be Australia’s premier match-winner in their victorious 2021 edition with 11 scalps from seven outings.
Ashton Agar jumped up three places to ninth, while Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana leaped 16 spots to break into the top-10 at eighth. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bagged six wickets from the first three home T20Is against South Africa, climbed three spots to No.11 and is the only Indian bowler to currently feature in the top-25.
Among batters, Ishan Kishan jumped a whopping 68 spots to break into the top 10, and claim a career-best ranking of No.7, following his scores of 76, 34 and 54 in the three T20Is. Babar continues to be No.1 in T20Is, too, followed by Mohammad Rizwan, Aiden Markram, Dawid Malan and Aaron Finch to round off the top-five.
