In the latest Test rankings issued by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday, former skipper Babar Azam and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi faced setbacks. Azam slipped three places to No. 12 in the Test batting rankings, while Afridi dropped one place to 11th in the bowling section after Pakistan’s shocking defeat in a two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. Mohammad Rizwan maintained his 10th place with 720 points in the rankings.
On the other hand, Joe Root has extended his lead atop the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings after scoring back-to-back centuries. Root, with 922 rating points, now leads by 63 points over New Zealand’s Kane Williamson. Root is just one point away from breaking his own personal best mark of 923 rating points, achieved in July 2022 after a century against India at Edgbaston. Only three English batters boast higher career highs for Test batters: Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs, and Peter May.
Despite his performance in the second Test against Sri Lanka, Root was overshadowed by Gus Atkinson, whose Player of the Match efforts with bat and ball led to significant jumps across all ranking disciplines. After becoming just the third player in Men’s Test history to score a century and claim a five-wicket haul, Atkinson moved up 48 spots into the top 20 for all-rounders and into the top 30 for bowlers.
While there were positive moves for a number of Sri Lanka players in the latest update despite the wrong result at Lord’s, Bangladesh’s impressive clean sweep series win against Pakistan resulted in several Tigers gaining ground in the rankings. Notably, Litton Das’s 138 in Bangladesh’s first innings and Mehedy Hasan Miraz’s five-wicket haul in Pakistan’s first innings saw them rise significantly in the rankings.
 on Wednesday, former skipper Babar Azam and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi faced setbacks. Azam slipped three places to No. 12 in the Test batting rankings, while Afridi dropped one place to 11th in the bowling section after Pakistan's shocking defeat in a two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. Mohammad Rizwan maintained his 10th place with 720 points in the rankings.){kind=link}