Dubai, Aug 16:
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin entered the top-10 as the lone Indian in the ICC Test player rankings for bowlers, while opener Shikhar Dhawan jumped 15 places for a career-high 32nd in the batting chart following their exploits in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle.
While Dhawan was ranked 32nd after his century against Sri Lanka, Test captain Virat Kohli, who also scored 110 in the first innings, was static to be the best-placed Indian batsman at number 10.
Spinner Ashwin, who had a 10-wicket haul for a losing cause, was at ninth place in the bowling list after jumping three places.
There was good news for several Sri Lanka players following their 63-run victory over India in the first Test, with career high gains for Dinesh Chandimal and Tharindu Kaushal as Rangana Herath also helped inspire the hosts to an unlikely victory.
Skipper Angelo Mathews has overtaken his team-mate Kumar Sangakarra and, in the process, moved up one place to fifth in the Test batsmen list after scores of 64 and 39.
Sangakarra, who will make his final appearance for Sri Lanka in the second Test which starts in Colombo on Thursday, now lies nine points behind Mathews on 851 points.
The highest mover in the batting rankings was wicket-keeper Chandimal who put in a Man of the Match performance by scoring 59 and 162 not out to vault 22 places to a career-high 23rd.
Courtesy his 134, Dhawan has become only the third Indian opening batsman – after Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid – to score Test centuries in consecutive innings overseas.
As a result of some fine performances with the ball from both sides, there was also movement in the top 10 of the player rankings for Test bowlers. Left-arm spinner Herath has moved up two places to sixth after claiming match figures of seven for 115 runs, his 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket, and is now on 771 points, a point clear of South Africa’s Vernon Philander.
Herath is now in third place in the all-time wicket-taker list for left-arm spinners on 270 wickets, four clear of Bishan Singh Bedi, with England’s Derek Underwood (297 wickets) in second place and New Zealand great Daniel Vettori (362) leading the list.
Meanwhile, Ashwin has climbed three places to ninth after claiming match figures of 10 for 160, while there were also notable career-high gains for Sri Lanka duo Kaushal (up 21 places to 60th) and Mathews (up three to 73rd).
The top of the all-rounder rankings remain unchanged with Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan leading the way on 384 points. Ashwin has risen one place to second ahead of Philander, and is now 45 points behind Shakib. (PTI)
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