Mohammed Aamer achieves career-best rankings

Pakistan’s young players have made upward movements in the ICC Test rankings after their spectacular three-wicket victory over Australia at Headingley.

Fast bowler Mohammed Aamer, who was declared player of the match for his figures of seven for 106, has vaulted 13 places to claim a career-best 38th position in the latest rankings. Aamer had entered the series in 54th position and now after two Tests has catapulted 16 places ahead.

As Aamer is still qualifying for a full rating, since a bowler is only eligible for a full rating once he reaches 100 Test wickets, he has a good chance of moving further up the order if he puts up strong performances in the forthcoming four-Test series against England which starts at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Besides Aamer, fast bowler Umar Gul has moved up one place to 16th position while Mohammed Asif and Danish Kaneria have retained their second and 15th positions respectively.

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, opener Imran Farhat has been rewarded for his scores of 43 and 67 with a jump of 12 places which put him in 34th position, two behind newly-appointed captain Salman Butt who has retained his 32nd position. Also moving up the order is number-three batsman Azhar Ali who has rocketed 29 places to 58th spot following scores of 30 and 51.

However, the Akmal brothers have slipped in the rankings. Kamran has dropped two places to 39th position while his younger brother Umar has slipped four places to 40th spot.

For Australia, the only good news is that vice-captain Michael Clarke has moved up one place to fourth spot after scores of three and 77 and fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus has jumped seven places to a career-best 24th spot following his figures of two for 77 and three for 39.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s first win over Australia after 13 consecutive defeats has given Sri Lanka a sniff of the third position in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship. And while the victory has earned Pakistan four rating points and puts it five ratings points clear of seventh-placed New Zealand, third-placed Australia has slipped from 119 ratings points to 116 ratings points - just one ahead of Sri Lanka which goes head to head against India in the second Test at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo today.

Sri Lanka, which leads the three-Test series following its 10-wicket victory in Galle, now needs to only draw the series to go ahead of Australia in the Test Championship. Sri Lanka can not only move ahead of Australia, it can potentially leapfrog top-ranked India if it wins both the remaining Tests.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2010.