Rangana Herath and Kusal Mendis have charged up the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after steering Sri Lanka to a 106-run victory over number-one ranked Australia in the first Test in Pallekele on Saturday. It was only the second Test victory for Sri Lanka over Australia, the previous one being way back in September 1999.
Herath, who took four for 49 and five for 54, has returned to the top 10 in ninth position after rising four places in the bowling chart, while Mendis, who won the player of the match award for his 176 in the second innings, has vaulted 27 places to 21st position in the batting table.
Herath’s rise means he has opened up a nine-position gap on his nearest team-mate Dhammika Prasad, who is nursing a shoulder injury. The Sri Lanka left-arm spinner is also the fourth spinner inside the top 10 after number-one ranked Ravichandaran Ashwin of India, Pakistan’s fifth-ranked Yasir Shah and sixth-ranked Ravindra Jadeja of India.
For Australia, the good news is the movement of fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who has moved up one place to seventh, while left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe has climbed six places to 65th.
Mendis’s rise means he is now the second highest-ranked Sri Lanka batsman after Angelo Mathews (12th after dropping two places). Dimuth Karunaratne 36th (after slipping two places) and Kaushal Silva 43rd (after falling seven places).
The batting list is headed by Australia captain Steve Smith, although his 24-point gap with England’s second-ranked Joe Root has been trimmed to 20 points. With Root to feature against Pakistan in the third Test at Edgbaston on Wednesday, 3 August, and Smith to face Sri Lanka in the second Test in Galle on Thursday, 4 August, it will be interesting to follow how the two batsmen perform as their performances will have direct impacts on their rankings.
The other good news for Australia is the movement of Adam Voges, who has broken into the top five in fifth position for the first time. Voges scored 47 and 12, and now trails South Africa’s fourth-ranked Hashim Amla by 40 points.
Australia openers David Warner and Joe Burns, and one-down batsman Usman Khawaja have all lost ground in the latest rankings, which were updated following the conclusion of the Bulawayo Test.
Warner now shares 10th position with India captain Virat Kohli after sliding three places, whereas Khawaja and Burns have slipped two places each to claim 29th and 35th positions, respectively.
