Travis Head, Pathum Nissanka and Lhuan-dre Pretorius have all made huge gains in the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings after their match-winnings efforts with the bat this past week.
Left-hander Head has gained three places to move back into the top 10 for batters after scores of 59 and 61 in a low-scoring first Test of the three-match ICC World Test Championship (WTC) series against the West Indies in Bridgetown that Australia won by 159 runs.
Sri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka has galloped 14 places to 17th after scoring 159 in Sri Lanka’s innings and 78 runs victory in the second Test against Bangladesh that helped win the WTC series 1-0 while debutant Pretorius has entered the rankings in 68th position after the left-hander struck 153 runs as South Africa defeated Zimbabwe by 328 runs in Bulawayo to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.
There were also huge gains for other South Africa batters in the latest weekly update, but regular captain Temba Bavuma not featuring in the Bulawayo Test meant that he ceded ground to India’s Rishabh Pant, who is now in sixth position, just one below his career-best ranking of fifth that he had attained in July 2022.
Wiaan Mulder (up 17 places to 56th) and Corbin Bosche (up 15 places to 59th) of South Africa and Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams (up two places to a career-best 15th) have also progressed after notching centuries in Bulawayo while Craig Ervine’s scores of 36 and 49 have lifted him four places to 48th.
Other batters to progress include the Sri Lanka pair of Dinesh Chandimal (up two places to 13th) and Kusal Mendis (up four places to 30th), and Australia’s Ben Webster (up 11 places to 52nd) while the West Indies’ John Campbell and captain Roston Chase have re-entered the rankings in 80th and 85th positions, respectively.
Hazlewood fourth in bowling rankings: The ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings led by Jasprit Bumrah see Australia’s Josh Hazlewood move up one slot to fourth position after finishing with seven wickets in Bridgetown including a five-for in the second innings.
Left-arm spinners Prabhath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka and Taijul Islam of Bangladesh have also moved up after five-wicket hauls in the Colombo Test. Jayasuriya has gone up one slot to joint-14th position and Taijul is up two places to 16th.
Jason Holder (up one place to 33rd), Shamar Joseph (up one place to 35th) and Chase (re-entered at 56th) of the West Indies and the South Africa pair of Mulder (up six places to 52nd) and Bosche (up 45 places to 57th) have also progressed.
silver rose
Sport Trivia: At the Summer Youth Olympics in 2010, one particular sport was restricted to one boys and one girls team from each participating continent. Ghana\’s boys team won the African qualifying tournament and were thus able to contest which event? Answer: Field hockey. The African girl\’s hockey place was won by the South African team. At the actual Games, Ghana placed fourth, and South Africa placed sixth. The sixth team in the competition, outside the five winning qualifiers, was the host country Singapore.
vicious street
Gary Player Made Golf More Interesting in South Africa: Even though South Africa has witnessed many excellent golf players, Gary Player remains unbeatable. Yes, we agree that Ernie Els was also a great golf player, but still, most golf lovers believe in the supremacy of Gary, and so do we!