Dubai- Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja’s superb run in the recently-concluded away series against Pakistan has seen him leapfrog batting stalwarts such as David Warner, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma and Travis Head to jump six spots to No.7 in the latest ICC Test Rankings for batters released on Wednesday.
India’s Rohit Sharma and Kohli have dropped one place to eighth and 10th respectively, while Pant is out of the top-10 and is 11th in the latest rankings list.
Khawaja was easily the standout batter in the three-match Test series against Pakistan, having aggregated 496 runs from five innings at a mindboggling 165.33. His scores in the series read 97, 160, 44 not out, 91 and 104 not out — the last two coming in Australia’s series-clinching 115-run win in the third Test at Lahore. That was after he had begun the year with twin hundreds in the New Year’s drawn Ashes Test in Sydney, which happened to be his comeback to the format after more than two years.
Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique, who finished as the second-highest run-scorer in the series with 397 runs at 79.40, has jumped 22 spots to break into the top-40, while Mohammad Rizwan has slipped eight spots to No. 19.
England skipper Joe Root has slipped to No.4, with Australia’s Steve Smith and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson taking up the No. 2 and 3 positions respectively in a chart led by Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne.
Among all-rounders, India’s Ravindra Jadeja continues to retain the top position, while Ravichandran Ashwin has displaced West Indies’ Jason Holder at the No.2 spot. West Indies all-rounder Kyle Mayers brilliance against England in the third Test at Grenada has helped him leap a staggering 29 spots to No. 11.
Among bowlers, Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah are placed second and fourth respectively in a field led by Aussie Test skipper Pat Cummins. Mayers, who bagged 2/13 and 5/18 in the third Test, his only appearance in the series, has jumped 33 spots to No.48 among bowlers as well. Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi has displaced New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson to claim the fifth spot, while Australian pace bowler Mitchell Starc has jumped four spots to No.11.
In fact, Cummins has further consolidated his status as the top-ranked Test bowler, after having bagged 12 wickets from three Tests, including a game-changing five-for in the third.
In ODIs, Adam Zampa jumped six positions to break into top 10 in the latest ICC ODI Rankings for bowlers. Zampa returned 4/38 in Australia’s 88-run win over Pakistan on March 29. Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan jumped four spots to No. 8, while fellow countryman Taskin Ahmed jumped up 15 spots to No.33, with the latter having returned 5/35 in Bangladesh’s dominant nine-wicket win over South Africa last week. South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada meanwhile, has slipped from No.8 to No. 13.
Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal has jumped to No.20 in the batting rankings, while South Africa’s Quinton de Kock has slipped a spot to fifth, being overtaken by Rohit Sharma. Pakistan’s Imam-ul-Haq’s gallant hundred on Tuesday has helped him return to the top 10.
Babar Azam, Trent Boult and Shakib continue to top the batting, bowling and the all-rounders’ charts respectively.
–IANS