Rohit Sharma attains career-best 8th position in ICC Men’s Test player rankings

Dubai: India opener Rohit Sharma has progressed six places to a career-best eighth position in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings after a fine performance in the low-scoring third Test against England in Ahmedabad that the home side won by 10 wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

Rohit top-scored in the first innings with 66 and remained unbeaten on 25 in the second to move ahead of compatriot Cheteshwar Pujara among others. His rating points aggregate is 742, 20 more than his best of 722 in October 2019 when he was ranked 10th.

Player of the match Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin have also made solid gains after helping carve out a crucial win that helped India remain in contention for the ICC World Test Championship final. Left-arm spinner Patel’s 11-wicket match haul has helped him gain 30 slots to reach 38th position while off-spinner Ashwin’s seven wickets have lifted him four places to third position.

England spinner Jack Leach has entered the top 30 for the first time, moving up three places to 28th after taking four wickets. Captain Joe Root’s maiden five-wicket haul has lifted him 16 places to 72nd among bowlers while he is now joint-13th among all-rounders.

Opener Zak Crawley’s knock of 53 in the first innings has helped him advance 15 places to 46th in what was the only notable gain for any of their batsmen.

Meanwhile, the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings move to a weekly updating system from March 2021.

The women’s player rankings will be updated at 12h00 Dubai time (08h00 GMT) each Tuesday, which will include performances in all ODI and T20I matches completed till theprevious day.

Similarly, the men’s player rankings will be updated at 12h00 Dubai time (08h00 GMT) on Wednesdays across all three formats and will include performances in matches completed by the previous day.

So, the first update under the weekly system will be on March 2 for women and March 3 for men.

The change will not impact the way the rankings are calculated but what it means is that instead of rankings being updated at the end of a series (in ODIs and T20Is) or a Test match, they may be updated while a series or match is ongoing without performances in those matches being considered.

The change is being brought about to bring regularity to the ranking updates for both men and women, ensuring that fans know when to expect the latest updates. (UNI)