Elgar back among the best
SOUTH Africa captain Dean Elgar’s match-winning knock of 96 not out against India in Johannesburg last week has pushed him back into the top 10 of the ICC Test rankings for the first time since January 2019.
His compatriot Temba Bavuma is up four places to 35th after his first innings half-centuryat the Wanderers.
Fast bowler Duanne Olivier has re-entered the bowlers’ list in 22nd position, with Lungi Ngidi (up three places to 27th) and Marco Jansen
(up 43 places to 54th) also making headway in the latest rankings.
The Proteas are currently involved in the third Test against India which will decide the series at Newlands in Cape Town.
New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson has advanced eight places to a career-best third position after a fine showing in the two-match World Test Championship series against Bangladesh that ended 1-1.
The 27-year-old, who finished with eight wickets, including six in the second Test in Christchurch, is only the fifth bowler from New Zealand to touch the 825-rating point mark after Richard Hadlee (909 in November 1985), Neil Wagner (859 in December 2019), Tim Southee (839 in November 2021) and Trent Boult (825 in May 2015).
Left-arm seam bowler Boult has also advanced in the latest weekly
update that includes the fourth
Ashes Test and the second Test between India and South Africa, moving up three places to 12th with nine wickets in the series.
Among New Zealand’s batters, Tom Latham has advanced two places to 11th after finishing with 267 runs in the series, while SA-born Devon Conway’s 244-run aggregate, including two centuries, lifted him 18 places to 29th after just five Tests.
Ross Taylor signed off from Test cricket in 28th place, having attained a career-best fourth spot and 871 rating points in December 2013.
Bangladesh’s Liton Das is up 17 places to a career-best 15th with 196 runs, while Mominul Haque (up eight places to 37th) and Najmul Hossain (up 21 places to 87th) have also made notable progress among batters.
Fast bowler Ebadot Hossain progressed 17 places to 88th with nine wickets in the series, after which New Zealand and Bangladesh were sixth and seventh respectively in the WTC points table.
The drawn fourth Test between Australia and England in Sydney saw Usman Khawaja make a memorable return to the Australia team with a Player of the Match effort. The 35-year-old left-hander’s scores of 137 and 101 not out saw him re-enter the rankings in 26th place on a list led by his compatriot Marnus Labuschagne.
Steve Smith leapfrogged Kane Williamson to third among batters, while Scott Boland moved up 24 places to 49th among bowlers.
Cameron Green, up 11 places to 89th among batters and 10 places to 75th among bowlers, is another Australia gaining in the rankings.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes moved up nine places to 18th among batters with scores of 66 and 60, while Jonny Bairstow’s knocks of 113 and 41 lifted him 16 places to 55th.
Stuart Broad is up two places to 14th among the bowlers and Mark Wood went from 41st to 38th.
For India, Shardul Thakur advanced 10 places to 42nd after finishing with an eight-wicket match haul that included seven wickets in the first innings agains the Proteas at the Wanderers.