Shaheen Afridi steals third spot in latest Test rankings, Babar Azam dethroned in T20I Pakistani left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi secured the third spot in the Test rankings while skipper Babar Azam was ousted in the latest rankings issued by the International Cricket Council on Wednesday. Afridi claimed the third spot following his performance in the recently finished Test series against Bangladesh.
Aspiring off-spinner Sajid Khan also made significant growth as he jumped 50 places to the 49th in the Test rankings after he made a 12-wicket haul in the game against Bangladesh. Mohammad Rizwan. meanwhile, jumped five places to reach 18th and Fawad Alam managed to steal the 20th spot in Test batting rankings.
Azam was displaced by British player Dawid Malan and South Africa’s Aiden Markram in the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, who now occupy first and second positions, respectively. In the T20I ranking list, Azam slid down to third place with 789 points after his rather disappointing performance in the first two matches against West Indies in Karachi despite Pakistan thrashing the team.
Other progressions
Another player to move up after the first Ashes Test was Australia opener David Warner who climbed up three places to sixth. In the bowlers’ rankings, meanwhile, England’s Ollie Robinson moved up four places to 31st and Mark Wood moved up two places to 50th while the rankings are led by Australia captain Pat Cummins. Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hasan scored 33 and 63 which let him advance eight places to reach 35th.
He also overtook Ben Stokes along with India’s Ravindra Jadeja after gaining one slot to reach the number four place among all-rounders. Jadeja now occupies third. Haider Ali earned 86 slots to reach the 98th position in the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings and reached the 98th position while in the bowlers' rankings Shadab Khan is back in the top 10 after making his way up through five slots to the ninth position. Fast bowler Haris Rauf occupied the 19th spot after climbing up three places while Mohammad Nawaz claimed 29 slots to reach the 54th position.
For West Indies' side, left-arm spinner Akeal Hosen took 73 slots and claimed 68th. Australia batters Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, meanwhile, earned their career-best positions in the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings with the first being second on the list after his 74 in the first Test against England that lifted him two slots and Player of the Match Head’s 152 earned him a 16-place jump to 10th.
What happened after the games against West Indies
Pakistan defeated West Indies by 9 runs on Tuesday in the second fixture of the T20 International at the National Stadium in Karachi. Meanwhile, it was reported that several West Indian players and staff members tested positive for COVID-19 after the match. However, tests on the Pakistani squad all returned negative, a report said.
“Our arrival testing protocols in Pakistan have confirmed four COVID-19 positives,” CWI chief executive Johnny Grave said, adding that despite the results of the test, the West Indian team’s tour of Pakistan would continue as planned. “These were confirmed whilst the players and staff were still in room isolation, so despite this significant setback to our preparation plans, we are confident that the tour can continue as everyone else returned negative PCRs before their arrival into Pakistan and two negative PCRs since they have been in Karachi," he continued.
“The risk of COVID-19 infection is impossible to remove completely from a cricket tour, in spite of the fact that many of our players have been living in bio-secure bubbles almost continuously since before the CPL."
