Root back in top 3 of ICC Rankings

ISLAMABAD, Feb 28 (APP):Former England captain Joe Root has made a comeback in the top three of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Test Batting Rankings released Wednesday.

India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has also advanced towards the top 10 after the fourth match of their ICC World Test Championship series in Ranchi which India won by five wickets to go 3-1 up in the five-match series.

Root, a formerly top-ranked batter, struck an unbeaten 122 in the first innings to move up two places to third position while left-hander Jaiswal, who started the series in 69th position, has risen three places to 12th after scores of 73 and 37.

Root has also moved up three spots to fourth among all-rounders.

Player of the Match Dhruv Jurel’s scores of 90 and 39 have lifted him 31 places to 69th position and England opener Zak Crawley has entered the top 20 for the first time after scores of 42 and 60, while a bunch of spinners have also prospered in the latest weekly update.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s five-wicket haul in the second innings has helped him narrow the gap with top-ranked Jasprit Bumrah to 21 rating points after the fast bowler was rested for the Ranchi Test. Wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav (up 10 places to 32nd) and England’s Shoaib Bashir (up 38 places to 80th) have also attained career bests.

In the Men’s ODI rankings, the biggest mover has been Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz, whose hauls of four for 31 against Nepal and two for 15 against the Netherlands in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 Tri-Series in Kirtipur have lifted him to 11th position and 642 ratings points, the highest position and points tally ever achieved by a Namibia player in ODI cricket.

The Netherlands’ Aryan Dutt followed up his six for 34 last week against Namibia with hauls of two for 41 and three for 16 to continue his march up the bowling rankings, reaching joint-36th position.

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus struck 52 against Nepal and picked three for 33 against the Netherlands to move into the top 10 all-rounders for the first time.

The T20I Rankings see Australia batter Travis Head move into the top 20 for the first time after scores of 24, 45 and 33 in the series against New Zealand.

Tim David’s quickfire 31 off just 10 balls in the first match saw him move up six places to 22nd and past the 600-point barrier for the first time in his career.

The top six bowlers are unchanged, with Josh Hazlewood the only new one in the top 10 after finishing with figures of 4-1-12-1 in Auckland.