The Indian cricket team recently won the third Test against England by a huge margin. Although Sri Lanka lost the three-match Test series against England 2-1, the eight-wicket win in the third Test at The Oval exposed their hard work and potential.
The impact of this victory has been directly reflected in the ICC Test rankings, where six Sri Lankan players have achieved the highest rating of their career.
Sri Lanka beat England to move up in ICC Test rankings
Sri Lanka’s Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva caught everyone’s attention with his brilliant performance. In the first innings, he played a crucial knock of 69 runs which played an important role in the team’s victory.
His performance has earned him a career-high ranking of 13th in the ICC Test batsmen rankings. With this ranking, he has become Sri Lanka’s top batsman in Test cricket.
Along with this, Sri Lanka’s middle-order fast bowler Kamindu Mendis and opener Pathum Nissanka have also seen the fruits of their hard work. Mendis scored a half-century in the final Test to jump six places to 19th in the rankings.
Nissanka, on the other hand, has moved up 42 places to 39th position after scores of 64 and 127. This shows that Sri Lankan players continue to rise rapidly in cricket.
With this historic victory of Sri Lanka and the excellent ranking of the players, both Sri Lanka and India will be looking to maintain their excellent form against Bangladesh in the upcoming Test series.
As far as England batsmen are concerned, Joe Root still holds the top spot, while Harry Brook has slipped to 12th position. Stand-in captain Ollie Pope’s first-innings century helped them gain seven places and they have now moved up to 27th in the rankings.
Also, Jamie Smith has jumped six places to reach 30th position after scoring a half-century against Sri Lanka.
Changes in bowlers’ rankings
There have also been changes in the latest rankings of bowlers. Sri Lanka bowler Vishwa Fernando has jumped 13 places to reach 31st position after taking five wickets against England. Lahiru Kumara moved up 10 places to 32nd position.
Milan Rathnayake has jumped 26 places to 84th position. England’s Olly Stone has strengthened his position at 74th position by taking three wickets in the first innings.
Ranking of Indian players
According to Cricbuzz, Indian cricket has also seen some significant changes. India captain Rohit Sharma, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli have moved up a place each to be fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in the latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen.
In the bowling department, Ravichandran Ashwin remains at the top spot, while Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood are joint second.
