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Azhar Ali moves to 10th position in ICC's ranking for Test batsmen

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ICC Media Release

Kane Williamson has become the first New Zealand batsman and 32nd overall to break the 900-point barrier in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen following a stellar performance in the third Test against Pakistan, which helped his side to win their first away series against the Asian side in 49 years.

Williamson scored 89 and 139 in Abu Dhabi last week, which set up New Zealand’s convincing 123-run victory over Pakistan. This performance not only helped Williamson to win the Player of the Match award, but also earn 37 points in the latest player rankings, which, in turn, has allowed him to leapfrog Australia’s Steve Smith into second position on a career-high 913 points.

Richard Hadlee, ICC’s Cricket Hall of Famer, is the only other New Zealand player – with bat or ball – to reach the 900-point mark in the ICC Test rankings. He reached 909 points with the ball following his five for 65 and six for 90 against Australia in Perth in November-December 1985.

As such, Williamson’s 913 points is also the highest points tally to date for New Zealand and he is sandwiched between Ken Barrington (914 points) and Brian Lara (911 points) in 27th position in the all-time list of highest batting-wise ranking points.

While Williamson shone with the bat in Abu Dhabi and was richly rewarded, number-one ranked Virat Kohli managed only three and 34 in his side’s impressive 31-run victory over Australia at the picturesque Adelaide Oval.

As a result, Kohli has conceded 15 points to slip to 920 points, just seven points ahead of Williamson.

With Williamson breathing down Kohli’s neck, the India captain will be under pressure to perform strongly with the bat in the second Test starting in Perth from Friday otherwise he will potentially lose his number-one ranking he has been holding since the Edgbaston Test against England in August.

There was further good news for New Zealand, whose Henry Nicholls has broken into the top 10 for the first time in his career. Nicholls scored 126 not out in the second innings and stitched up a 212-run fifth wicket partnership with Williamson as New Zealand set Pakistan a 280-run target after having conceded a 74-run first innings lead.

For this performance, Nicholls has jumped from 17th to ninth by rising eight places to become his side’s second batsman inside the top-10. BJ Watling has also made an upward movement and is now ranked 22nd after gaining four places.

Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, who scored centuries for Pakistan in the first innings, have made small gains. Azhar has moved up two places to 10th, while Asad is now 21st after rising one place.


And speaking of the centurions, how can one forget Cheteshwar Pujara, whose knocks of 123 and 71 were the cornerstone of India’s victory. Pujara has now moved ahead of Joe Root and David Warner in fourth position. He trails third-ranked Smith by 55 points, and leads Root by 39 points.

India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has achieved a career-high ranking of 33rd, after his three for 47 and three for 68 helped him to rise five places.

Nathan Lyon of Australia, who took eight wickets in the Test, has consolidated his 14th position while reducing the gap with 13th ranked Neil Wagner from 34 points to eight points.

The other two notable movers from the Adelaide Test are Ajinkya Rahane in 17th (up by two places) and Mitchell Starc in 16th (up by two places).

Amongst the newcomers, Australia’s Marcus Harris has entered in 116th batting position, while amongst the bowlers, off-spinner William Somerville of New Zealand has emerged in 63rd spot and Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has popped up in 111th place.

The MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings will now be updated following the conclusion of the Perth Test.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 11 December, following the conclusion of the Adelaide and Abu Dhabi Tests)



BATSMEN (top 20)



Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge Highest Rating

1 ( - ) Virat Kohli Ind 920 53.96 937 v Eng at Southampton 2018

2 (+1) Kane Williamson NZ 913! 51.56 913 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2018

3 (-1) Steve Smith Aus 901 61.37 947 v SA at Durban 2018

4 (+2) C. Pujara Ind 846 50.48 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017

5 (-1) Joe Root Eng 807 50.44 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

6 (-1) David Warner Aus 795 48.20 880 v NZ at Perth 2015

7 ( - ) D. Karunaratne SL 753 37.60 754 v SA at Colombo (SSC) 2018

8 ( - ) Dean Elgar SA 724 41.05 784 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018

9 (+8) Henry Nicholls NZ 709*! 39.20 709 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2018

10 (+2) Azhar Ali Pak 708 44.88 787 v Aus at Melbourne 2016

11 (-2) Aiden Markram SA 703* 47.27 759 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018

12 (-1) D. Chandimal SL 695 44.28 755 v Win at St Lucia 2018

13 (-3) Usman Khawaja Aus 677 42.94 747 v Pak at Sydney 2017

14 ( - ) Hashim Amla SA 673 47.23 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

15 ( - ) Faf du Plessis SA 665 42.33 734 v Ind at Centurion 2018

16 (-3) Ross Taylor NZ 658 46.08 871 v Win at Hamilton 2013

17= (-1) Jonny Bairstow Eng 653 37.71 772 v SA at Old Trafford 2017

(+2) Ajinkya Rahane Ind 653 41.40 825 v NZ at Indore 2016

19 (-1) Jos Buttler Eng 635! 36.76 635 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2018

20 ( - ) Kusal Mendis SL 627 36.11 693 v Win at St Lucia 2018



BOWLERS (top 20)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge Highest Rating

1 ( - ) Kagiso Rabada SA 882 21.71 902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018

2 ( - ) James Anderson Eng 874 26.98 903 v Ind at Lord's 2018

3 (+1) Vernon Philander SA 826 21.54 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

4 (-1) M. Abbas Pak 821* 16.62 838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018

5 ( - ) Ravindra Jadeja Ind 804 23.50 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017

6 (+1) R. Ashwin Ind 786 25.43 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016

7 (-1) Pat Cummins Aus 770* 24.64 800 v SA at Johannesburg 2018

8 ( - ) Trent Boult NZ 764 28.14 825 v Eng at Lord's 2015

9 ( - ) Yasir Shah Pak 757 28.26 878 v Eng at Lord's 2016

10 ( - ) Jason Holder Win 751* 28.50 766 v Ind at Hyderabad 2018

11 ( - ) Josh Hazlewood Aus 749 26.76 863 v Ind at Bengaluru 2017

12 ( - ) Shannon Gabriel Win 742 29.73 757 v Ban at Jamaica 2018

13 ( - ) Neil Wagner NZ 733 28.49 785 v Win at Wellington 2017

14 ( - ) Nathan Lyon Aus 725 32.05 774 v Eng at Adelaide 2017

15 (-1) Tim Southee NZ 706 30.70 799 v Win at Jamaica 2014

16 (+2) Mitchell Starc Aus 699 28.31 805 v SA at Durban 2018

17 (-1) Mehidy Hasan Ban 696*! 29.78 696 v Win at Dhaka 2018

18 (-1) Stuart Broad Eng 694 29.04 880 v SA at Johannesburg 2016

19 ( - ) Keshav Maharaj SA 692* 27.65 695 v Zim at Port Elizabeth 2017

20 ( - ) Dilruwan Perera SL 689! 31.49 689 v Eng at Colombo (SSC) 2018



ALL-ROUNDERS (top five)



Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Highest Rating

1 ( - ) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 415 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017

2 ( - ) Ravindra Jadeja Ind 392 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017

3 ( - ) Vernon Philander SA 370 378 v SL at Galle 2018

4 ( - ) Jason Holder Win 365 /* 381 v Ind at Hyderabad 2018

5 ( - ) Ben Stokes Eng 342 396 v Win at Lord's 2017



*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

!indicates career-highest rating
 
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson moved up one spot to the No.2 in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen and is now only behind India's Virat Kohli.

The other big mover was Cheteshwar Pujara, who broke into the top five of the on the batsmen's rankings after his match-turning scores of 123 and 71 in Adelaide. In doing so, he moved past Joe Root and David Warner and currently sits pretty at No.4.

Williamson scored 89 and 139 in Abu Dhabi to put New Zealand on course for a historic Test series win against Pakistan. It propelled him to a career-high total of 913 ratings points, just seven behind India skipper Virat Kohli. Williamson is now the first from his country to get past 900 ratings points.

Henry Nicholls, who also scored a century in the same innings, jumped eight places to break into the top 10 at No.9, while BJ Watling moved up four places to No.22.

Apart from Pujara, other Indians made waves in the latest rankings. Ajinkya Rahane rose two spots to the 17th position after his knock of 70 in India's second innings and knocks of 25 and 28 helped Rishabh Pant jump seven places to No.59.

Australia's lower order fights hard, but India hold on to seal their first Test victory in Australia since 2008.

However, India's openers, KL Rahul and M Vijay, and middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, all lost footing. Rahul slipped two positions to No. 26, Vijay three to No.45 and Rohit dropped four places to No.53.

For Pakistan, valiant centurions Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq made gains. Ali rose two places to No.10 and Shafiq climbed one spot to No.21. Babar Azam, who made a fighting 51 in Pakistan's second innings, also rose three places to No.35.

However, all of Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez and Imam-ul-Haq suffered failures and it reflected in the rankings update. Hafeez – the Abu Dhabi Test was his last – slipped seven spots to No.65, while skipper Ahmed and opener Imam lost one place each to reach No.32 and No.97 respectively.

Australia, meanwhile, had mixed results. Usman Khawaja slipped three spots to 13th, and Aaron Finch dropped to No.89. Shaun Marsh rose six places to 38th, Tim Paine four spots to No.55 and Travis Head a massive 17 places to No.80.

Nathan Lyon was rewarded for his unbeaten knocks of 24 and 38 with a 17-place leap to no.130.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/940568
 
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3 batsmen at 900+ ratings! Has this ever happened earlier? Is there a way to check date wise historical rankings from say 1970s onwards?
 
Smith will be below 900 points mark after Perth test.
 
Kohli had 2 bad tests and hence lost quite a few points.
 
3 batsmen at 900+ ratings! Has this ever happened earlier? Is there a way to check date wise historical rankings from say 1970s onwards?

This is the first time since 2008. Back in January 2008, there were 4 batsmen at 900 or more:

Sangakkara 933
Kallis 920
Ponting 901
Hussey 900
 
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