Noman Ali achieves career-best ICC Test bowling rankings

Pakistan spinner Noman Ali has attained a career-best second position in the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings after helping his team win the first Test against South Africa in Lahore.

The left-arm spinner has progressed four places and is now only 29 rating points behind top-ranked Jasprit Bumrah of India after finishing with figures of six for 112 and four for 79 in Pakistan’s 93-run victory that helped take a 1-0 lead in the two-match ICC World Test Championship series.

Noman is currently at a career-high of 853 rating points, becoming only the seventh from his country to cross the 850-point mark and the first since leg-spinner Yasir Shah in July 2016. Noman’s previous best was the fifth position that he had attained in January this year during a series against the West Indies when he had reached 806 rating points.

Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi has also made notable progress in the latest weekly rankings update, as his second innings haul of four for 33 helped him move back into the top 20, up three places to 19th position.

Experienced batters Mohammad Rizwan (up four places to 16th) and Babar Azam (up two places to 22nd) have made progress in the batting rankings with Salman Agha (up eight places to 30th) and Imam-ul-Haq (re-entered at 44th position) also prospering.

For South Africa, Ryan Rickelton’s score of 71 in the first innings has lifted him into the top 50 for the first time while Tony de Zorzi’s century has helped him reach 54th position. Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy, whose match haul of 11 for 174 was the best by a South Africa bowler in Pakistan, has advanced from 93rd to 55th in the bowling rankings.

The ICC Men’s ODI Rankings see Bangladesh’s Towhid Hridoy move up seven places to 35th after notching a half-century in their first ODI against the West Indies in Mirpur.

Josh Hazlewood has moved back into the top 10 for bowlers after his haul of two for 20 in the first ODI against India in Perth while India’s Mohammad Siraj has re-entered at 16th position. K. L Rahul has moved up one spot to 14th position in the batting rankings.

The T20I Rankings see England batters Phil Salt and Harry Brook gaining after they ensured a 1-0 lead in their T20I series in New Zealand. Salt scored 85 to stay in second position while Brook’s 35-ball innings of 78 took him to joint-20th place with a career-best 598 points.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who took four for 32 in Christchurch, has moved up three spots to third among bowlers.