Harry Brook has dethroned teammate, Joe Root as the top Men’s Test batter after the ICC Men’s Player Rankings were updated this week. Brook’s scores of 123 and 55 in England’s massive, 323-run victory over New Zealand in Wellington, gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match World Test Championship series and pushed Brook to his first-ever seat at the top of the batting rankings. Twenty-five-year-old Brook is the youngest batter to top the men’s table since Kane Williamson at the end of 2015.
Root, who also scored a century in the match (106 off 130 balls), is just one ratings point behind Brook’s 898 points, losing the top spot that he has held comfortably since July this year – a position he has attained nine times over his impressive career.
South Africa have moved to the top of the ICC World Test Championship table after another emphatic win over Sri Lanka. They beat their visitors by 109 runs in Gqeberha, leading to captain, Temba Bavuma (753 points) to move three places to a personal best seventh among the batters thanks to his scores of 78 and 66. Kyle Verreynne’s third Test century enabled him to make a first appearance in the world’s top 25 batters – now in 23rd place after climbing 15 slots with 636 points.
Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal rose two slots to 15th place, with 685 points.
Travis Head’s match-winning 140 in Australia’s victorious day-night, series-levelling Test against India saw his return to the top five of the batting rankings. He jumped six slots to fifth with 781 points as the five-match series moves to Brisbane on Saturday. His teammate, Marnus Labuschagne also made gains, shifting three places to 13th (705 points).
Jasprit Bumrah cemented his position at the top of the bowlers list, reaching a career-best 890 points, while Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins moved up a spot to fourth place. New Zealand’s Matt Henry also made a move, rising one spot to ninth.
Mitchell Starc, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Keshav Maharaj also made significant gains, rising to 11th, 15th, 17th and joint-18th positions respectively. England’s Brydon Carse’s impressive start to his Test career saw him rise six places to 37th.
India’s Ravindra Jadeja remains at the top of the men’s Test all-rounders list with Bangladesh’s captain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz climbing two places to second at the conclusion of their drawn series against the West Indies in Jamaica.
In ODIs, West Indies’ Sherfane Rutherford’s explosive 113 in the first match against Bangladesh helped him rocket 62 slots to joint-31st with the Netherlands’ Scott Edwards, while Shai Hope moved one place to eighth on the batters list. Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah rose three rungs to 40th, with Mehidy Hasan Miraz climbing nine spots to number 81. The Windies’ Gudakesh Motie jumped four places to ninth on the bowlers list and moved another four to joint 36th among the all-rounders.
Some good news for Pakistan in T20Is, captain Mohammad Rizwan rose two places to sixth in the batters list following their 11-run, series-opening loss against South Africa on Tuesday night, while Shaheen Shah Afridi climbed six slots to 20th in the bowlers list.
Woodland Beauty
Sport Trivia: Which South African soccer (football) player was appointed captain of Leeds United in 1998? Answer: Lucas Radebe. Lucas Radebe grew up in a family of 11 children in Soweto, Johannesburg. He played soccer to keep himself occupied and in 1989 he was signed up to play for Kaizer Chiefs. He jumped at the chance to move to England when offered an opportunity to play for Leeds in 1994.
Jersey
Sport Trivia: Who was the first black player to represent South Africa in rugby? Answer: Errol Tobias made his debut for South Africa on 30th May 1981, against Ireland at Newlands. South Africa won the match 23-15. He went on to win six caps between 1981 and 1984.