Cricket News: Joe Root, Steve Smith Move Closer To Top Of ICC Men's Test Player Rankings

The latest ICC Men's Test Player Rankings have seen significant movement following the conclusion of the fifth and final England-Australia Test at The Oval as well as the second Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test in Colombo with Joe Root and Steve Smith moving closer to top in the batting chart. The Ashes ended in a two-all tie after the hosts fought their way back into a winning position in the second half of the series. England's Joe Root featured on all three lists, advancing one slot to take second place behind New Zealand's Kane Williamson, in the batters list with 859 rating points,

while sliding up three spaces for 64th position in the bowlers list (334 points) and moved up one again for his sixth position (286 points) among the all-rounders. Harry Brook's 363 runs for England saw him rise to a career-best ninth place from 11th, with 773 points, his first time in the top ten of the batters list, while his teammates, Jonny Bairstow and Zack Crawley rose to 17th (from 19th) and 29th (from 35th) with 683 and 618 points respectively. This is Crawley's personal best ranking and shares his position with Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan, who rose four slots from 33rd place.

In the top ten for Australia is Steve Smith, whose performances with the bat saw him climb up three places for the third spot with 842 points and opener, Usman Khawaja, who claimed seventh place from eighth, with 796 points. 

Pakistan batters also saw significant gains following their innings and 222-run triumph over Sri Lanka. Abdullah Shafique’s outstanding double century (201 from 326 balls) saw him sail 27 slots to 21st place, with 657 points, while Agha Salman's unbeaten 132 off 154 also gave him a remarkable, 23-slot jump to a career-best 35th from 58th, with 601 points. 

He also rose six places to another career-best 33rd (118 points) in the all-rounders list. Their teammate Shan Masood advanced seven spots to 67th with 444 points.

The bowlers were equally busy, although none have closed in on Ravichandran Ashwin's stronghold in first place on 879 points. Stuart Broad ended his Test career on a shinning note, rising four slots to fourth place with 776 points, and finishing in 18th place in the all-rounders list with 172 points.

Rewards were also earned by his England teammates, Ollie Robinson (6th from 9th with 762 points), Mark Wood (career-best 21st from 23rd with 640 points) and Chris Woakes (23rd from 31st with 624 points). Woakes also entered the top 10 of the all-rounders list after going up one slot from 11th with 229 rating points, while Wood stepped up to 24th from 25th with 149 points. 

Moeen Ali is just four places below him among the all-rounders in 28th position after gaining four slots from 32nd with 130 points.

Mitchell Starc skipped two spots to 12th (742 points), while Todd Murphy rose nine slots to 57th and a personal best rating of 330 points in the bowlers list and advanced 20 spots to 60th in the all-rounders list. 

Pakistan's Naseem Shah went up seven spots to 37th and 530 points among the bowlers, while his teammate Noman Ali reached a career-best 42nd place from 55th (497 points) after taking 7/70 in the second innings of their Test against Sri Lanka. He also rose eight slots to 38th in the all-rounders list with 100 points.

In the latest ICC Men's ODI Player Rankings which consider the last two matches between the West Indies and India in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, India emerged the series victors, beating out the hosts 2-1 in the series-deciding third fixture. 

Windies captain, Shai Hope, rose one place to 12th position in the batters list with 688 rating points, while India's Ishan Kishan shot up 15 places to a joint 45th with Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz on 555 points.

In the bowlers list, Kuldeep Yadav jumped eight slots to 14th place (601 points), while his teammate Shardul Thakur leaped nine slots to joint 33rd with Mohammad Nawaz from Pakistan on 524 points and in the all-rounders list. 

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Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav sit in joint 42nd place from 45th and 50th respectively with 154 points, they also share the position with Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz.