Dimuth Karunaratne achieves career best rankings

Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne and Jason Holder of the West Indies have achieved career-high positions in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after inspiring their sides to impressive victories in the Galle and Jamaica Tests, respectively, which concluded on Saturday.

Karunaratne, the 30-year-old left-handed opener, has been rewarded for his knocks of 158 not out and 60 in Sri Lanka’s 278-run victory over South Africa with a leap of 21 places that has put him in 10th position among batsmen, while Holder’s figures of five for 44 and six for 59 in his side’s 166-run victory over Bangladesh moved him up nine places to 13th in the latest rankings, which were released on Sunday morning.

Karunaratne is now his side’s second-highest-ranked batsman behind Dinesh Chandimal (ninth), while Holder is also his side’s second-highest-ranked bowler behind Shannon Gabriel, who is now in 11th position. With Chandimal not available for the Colombo Test, Karunaratne has an opportunity to become his country’s highest-ranked batsman, provided he performs strongly.

From the Galle Test against the second-ranked side in the world, Karunaratne has collected 128 points and he now trails Chandimal by 20 points, while Holder’s efforts in Jamaica have earned him 98 points, which means he is now 11 points behind 12th- ranked England fast bowler Stuart Broad and 26 points behind Gabriel.

Other batsmen to make major upward movements from the just-concluded Tests include Kraigg Brathwaite (13th, up by three places) and Shakib Al Hasan (22nd, up by two places), while bowlers to head in the right direction are Rangana Herath (eighth, up by two places), Dilruwan Perera (25th, up by seven places) and Mehedi Hasan (33rd, up by three places).

The only change of note in the leading all-rounders’ list is the breaking of Holder into the top five in fifth position for the first time in his career.

Steve Smith of Australia, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada and Shakib are the top-ranked batsman, bowler and all-rounder, respectively.

Meanwhile, the West Indies’ 2-0 series win have earned them five points, while Bangladesh have conceded eight points. This 13-point swing means the two sides have swapped places in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings.

The West Indies have moved to eighth position, while Bangladesh have slipped to ninth with 10 points now separating the two sides.

As the Test team rankings are updated following the conclusion of a series, these will now be updated after the end of Sri Lanka versus South Africa series. If South Africa win in Colombo, then they will finish on 110 points (down by two) and Sri Lanka will end on 93 points (up by two points).

In contrast, if Sri Lanka win the series 2-0, then they will join England on 97 points but will be ranked below Joe Root’s side by a fraction of a point, while South Africa will join Australia on 106 points but will be ranked ahead of Tim Paine’s side when the rankings are calculated beyond the decimal points.