LAHORE – Pakistan’s left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afrid made it to the top five of the ICC Men’s Test Player ranking for the first time in his career following his impressive performance against Bangladesh in first Test.
The pace prodigy recorded figures of two for 70 and five for 32, and has been rewarded with a jump of three places that has now put him in fifth position behind Pat Cummins (Australia), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Tim Southee (New Zealand) and Josh Hazlewood (Australia).
Pakistan won the first Test match by eight wickets.
Shaheen Afridi has also become Pakistan’s highest-ranked bowler in all formats. He is at 13 place in ODI ranking and 11 in T20 ranking.
From the Chattogram Test, Shaheen collected 27 points that have lifted him from 783 points to 810 points. In reaching the 800-point mark, Shaheen has become the 11th Pakistan bowler to break the 800-point barrier. Other Pakistan bowlers to enter the 800-point mark are: Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Fazal Mahmood, Yasir Shah, Shoaib Akhtar, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Abbas, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and Mohammad Asif.
Meanwhile, Hasan Ali, who had figures of five for 51 and two for 52, has vaulted five places to 11th in the latest ICC Rankings for Test Bowlers.
Hasan Ali has leapfrogged Stuart Broad (England), Kemar Roach (West Indies), Mitchell Starc (Australia), Jason Holder (West Indies) and Trent Boult (New Zealand). Hasan now sits on 755 points and will aim to collect eight more points from the Dhaka Test to break into the top-1o for the first time in his career.
Opener Abid has vaulted into the top-20 for the first time in his career after his 133 and 91 has lifted him from 47th to 20th.
From the Chattogram Test, Abid has earned 111 points making him the second Pakistan batters after captain Babar Azam (eighth, down by one) to feature inside the top-2o. Pakistan batters outside the top-20 are Mohammad Rizwan (21st, down by three), Azhar Ali (22nd, down by one) and Fawad Alam (27th, down by seven).
Abdullah Shafique, who scored 52 and 73 on his debut, has entered the ICC rankings in 83rd position and is expected to make a further upward movement if he manages to repeat his performances in the second Test, which commences on Saturday.
Joe Root of England is the No.1 ranked batter and is followed by Steve Smith (Australia), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Marnus Labuschagne (Australia) and Rohit Sharma (India).
