Babar has attained a career-best sixth position after his unbeaten 100 against Sri Lanka in the Karachi Test, which Pakistan won by 263 runs to clinch the two-match series 1-0, while Abid’s second successive century has pushed him up to 62nd position after only two Tests.

Abid’s 473 rating points are the second best by a Pakistan batsman after two Tests, only below Umar Akmal’s tally of 499. The all-time high for a batsman after two Tests is 506 rating points in the name of late Australia opener Phil Hughes.

If Abid top-scored with 174, his partner Shan too struck a fine 135 in a 278-run opening stand, moving from 52nd to a career-best 40th position. Captain Azhar’s 118 has helped him gain three places and reach 26th in the latest rankings update.

Another Pakistan player to progress in the batting rankings is Asad Shafiq (up two places to 20th) while new-ball bowlers Mohammad Abbas (up three places to 15th) and Shaheen Afridi (up eight places to 39th) have also advanced after finishing with five and six wickets, respectively.

Sri Lanka opener Oshada Fernando’s fighting century in the second innings has lifted him 17 places to a career-best 52nd place while Niroshan Dickwella (up two places to 31st) and Dinesh Chandimal (up one place to 33rd) have advanced after scoring a half-century each.

Among bowlers, Lahiru Kumara has moved from 36th to 32nd and Kasun Rajitha from 50th to 49th.

In the ICC World Test Championship, Pakistan and Sri Lanka both have 80 points, with India leading the points table with 360 points.

Australia are second at 216 points after winning the opening match of their ongoing three-Test series against New Zealand and could potentially go up to 296 at the end of the series. England, who are on 56 points, having played only a drawn 2-2 Ashes series, go head to head with South Africa in a four-match series starting with the Boxing Day Test at Centurion. South Africa have yet to gain a point after figuring in a three-match series in India.

Each series of the WTC is worth 120 points, distributed evenly over the number of matches in a series. The points range from 60 points for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series.

The top two teams at the end of the league will play the final in the UK in June 2021 with the winners crowned the World Test Champions.

More on the WTC is available here. An FAQs document on the ICC World Test Championship is available here.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 24 December 2019)

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Pts	Avge	Highest Rating
1	( - )	Virat Kohli	India	928	54.97	937 v Eng at Southampton 2018
2	( - )	Steve Smith	Aus	911	63.14	947 v SA at Durban 2018
3	( - )	K Williamson	NZ	864	52.21	915 v Ban at Hamilton 2019
4	( - )	C Pujara	India	791	49.48	888 v SL at Nagpur 2017
5	( - )	M Labuschagne	Aus	786*!	58.05	786 v NZ at Perth 2019
6	(+3)	Babar Azam	Pak	767!	42.67	767 v SL at Karachi 2019
7	(-1)	A Rahane	India	759	43.74	825 v NZ at Indore 2016
8	(-1)	David Warner	Aus	755	48.33	880 v NZ at Perth 2015
9	(-1)	Joe Root	Eng	752	48.54	917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
10	(+1)	Ross Taylor	NZ	714	47.17	871 v WI at Hamilton 2013

 

Other selected rankings

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Pts	Avge	Highest Rating
20	(+2)	Asad Shafiq	Pak	655	39.03	758 v Eng at Lord's 2016
26	(+3)	Azhar Ali	Pak	610	42.64	787 v Aus at Melbourne 2016
31	(+2)	N Dickwella	SL	591!	30.95	591 v Pak at Karachi 2019
33	(+1)	D Chandimal	SL	583	41.35	755 v WI at St Lucia 2018
40=	(+12)	Shan Masood	Pak	553*!	29.43	553 v SL at Karachi 2019
62	(+16)	Abid Ali	Pak	473*!	160.5	473 v SL at Karachi 2019

 

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Pts	Avge	Highest Rating
1	( - )	Pat Cummins	Aus	898	22.18	914 v Eng at Old Trafford 2019
2	( - )	Kagiso Rabada	SA	839	22.5	902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018
3	( - )	Neil Wagner	NZ	834!	26.78	834 v Aus at Perth 2019
4	( - )	Jason Holder	WI	830!	26.37	830 v Afg at Lucknow 2019
5	( - )	Mitchell Starc	Aus	806!	26.94	806 v NZ at Perth 2019
6	( - )	Jasprit Bumrah	India	794	19.24	835 v WI at Jamaica 2019
7	( - )	J Hazlewood	Aus	785	26.2	863 v India at Bengaluru 2017
8	( - )	V Philander	SA	783	22.16	912 v India at Johannesburg 2013
9	( - )	J Anderson	Eng	782	26.94	903 v India at Lord's 2018
10	( - )	Tim Southee	NZ	780	29.61	799 v WI at Jamaica 2014

 

Other selected rankings

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Pts	Avge	Highest Rating
15	(+3)	M Abbas	Pak	741*	20.9	838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018
32	(+4)	Lahiru Kumara	SL	496*!	37.31	496 v Pak at Karachi 2019
39	(+8)	Shaheen Afridi	Pak	432*!	29.88	432 v SL at Karachi 2019
49	(+1)	Kasun Rajitha	SL	336*	28.54	374 v WI at Barbados 2018
67	(+17)	Haris Sohail	Pak	244*!	24	244 v SL at Karachi 2019
79	(+31)	Naseem Shah	Pak	208*!	32.75	208 v SL at Karachi 2019

 

All-rounders (top five)

Rank	(+/-)	Player	Team	Pts	Highest Rating
1	( - )	Jason Holder	WI	473!	473 v Afg at Lucknow 2019
2	( - )	R Jadeja	India	406	438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017
3	( - )	Ben Stokes	Eng	381	411 v Aus at Headingley 2019
4	( - )	V Philander	SA	315	377 v SL at Galle 2018
5	( - )	Mitchell Starc	Aus	312	346 v India at Pune 2017

 

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.
!indicates career-highest rating

For more information on player rankings, please click here.