OLLIE ROBINSON AT A CAREER-BEST THIRD POSITION IN ICC MEN’S TEST BOWLING RANKINGS

• Tongue, Babar among others to move up in Test rankings; Renshaw, Airee and Chopra major gainers in ODI rankings; Indian bowlers progress in T20Is

England pace bowler Ollie Robinson has maintained his ascendancy in the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings, gaining two spots to reach a career-best third position after playing a vital role in a 3-0 win in their ICC World Test Championship series against Pakistan. 

Robinson, who finished with 21 wickets and has gained 23 places during the series, attained his previous best fourth position in February 2023. He is now on a career-best 856 rating points, becoming only the 16th England bowler to reach the 850-point mark. 

His team-mate Josh Tongue continues to be in the news, his 19 wickets in the series lifting him 22 slots to a career-best 11th position in the latest weekly update to the men’s rankings that is carried out on Wednesdays. He was in 13th position before the third Test. 

Pakistan captain Babar Azam’s score of 76 in the second innings of the Birmingham Test has lifted him two places to 13th, with his team-mates Saud Shakeel (up two places to 16th) and Shan Masood (up four places to 37th) also moving up the rankings along with England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who is back in the top 20. 

Debutant Razaullah’s knock of 81 that saw him hit nine sixes, has helped him enter the batting rankings in 91st position while he is 120th in the bowling rankings. 

The ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings see no change in the top 10 with Australia batter Matt Renshaw’s 109 in the first ODI against Zimbabwe lifting him 54 places to 68th. South Africa’s Tony de Zorzi (up two places to 54th), Zimbabwe’s Craig Ervine (up three places to 72nd), Australia’s Cooper Connolly (up nine places to 77th), Nepal’s Dipendra Airee (up 10 places to 84th) and the UAE’s Rahul Chopra (up 19 places to 87th) are among the others to move up the list. 

In the ODI bowling rankings, Nathan Ellis’s career-best five for 31 in the first match against Zimbabwe has helped him to a place in the top 20 for the first time while Airee’s double of 51 and three for 11 against Oman in Kuala Lumpur has lifted him five places up in both the bowling and all-rounders’ lists. 

In the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, India opener Abhishek Sharma has overtaken Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan to second place after scores of 82 and 39 in the first two matches of the series against Afghanistan. Sanju Samson is up four places to 30th while for Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi (up four places to 84th) and Azmatullah Omarzai (up 12 places to 89th) have gained. 

The bowling rankings in this format see Indians prosper after their two wins. Varun Chakravarthy (up two places to fifth), Jasprit Bumrah (up seven places to 10th), Arshdeep Singh (up 11 places to 14th) and Axar Patel (up six places to 27th) have all registered significant gains. 

For the ICC World Test Championship standings, please click here. 

To know more about the ICC Rankings, please click here