England batter Joe Root has replaced Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne at the top of the ICC men’s Test rankings, following his recent run of form.
Root, who recently became only the second England batter to score more than 10,000 Test runs, has been in fine touch during the ongoing home series against New Zealand, producing knocks of 115* at Lord’s and 176 in Nottingham. As a result, Root earned 897 rating points, enough to take him above Labuschagne, who had held on to the No.1 spot since December 2021.
Australia’s Steven Smith remains in third place, with Pakistan captain Babar Azam and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson rounding off the top five.
Labuschagne, however, will have a chance to regain top spot when Australia take on Sri Lanka in a two-match series later this month. Root’s immediate assignments following the New Zealand series include a one-off Test against India, as well as a three-match series against South Africa at home.
New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell also made big progress in the rankings, jumping 33 places to move to 17th in the batting list, following scores of 190 and 69 in the Trent Bridge Test.
Among the bowlers, Trent Boult, who took a five-wicket haul during the first innings at Trent Bridge, vaulted four places up to ninth in the rankings, while his compatriots Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee dropped to sixth and 13th on the list, respectively. That allowed India’s Jasprit Bumrah (third), Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi (fourth) and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada (fifth) to all rise a spot.
In the ODI table, Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq moved past India’s Virat Kohli to occupy the No. 2 position in the batting rankings, achieving a career-best 815 points. Imam scored three half-centuries during Pakistan’s ODI series at home against West Indies and was named Player of the Series. His captain Babar, meanwhile, occupies top spot in both the men’s ODI and T20I rankings, having made 50-plus scores in six of his last seven international matches.
Boult remains on top of the ODI bowler rankings, but Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood and New Zealand pacer Matt Henry are closing in after they jumped one spot to second and third, respectively.
In the allrounder rankings, Oman’s Zeeshan Maqsood was the biggest mover, jumping 13 places to 10th following a string of impressive performances in the World Cup League 2. Maqsood scored an unbeaten century against Nepal earlier this month and then backed that up with a four-wicket haul with the ball in Oman’s following match against USA. (BBC Sport)