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Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who scored a couple of fifties in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, has made a jump of five places on August 12 to enter the top 10 of the ICC Rankings for Test batters. The right-handed batter, who has been his team’s top performer, has 716 rating points and is now in the 10th position.

Babar scored 88 runs for the visiting team in the first innings of the second and final Test against the host nation at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain and remained 24 not out in the second innings of the contest, which Pakistan won by 8 wickets.

Babar’s rise has come after his consistent contributions in an away bilateral assignment. On the other hand, Team India wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant has dropped to the 14th position and is no longer a part of the top 10 group in the longest format of the game.

Both Babar and Rishabh will soon be in action and have a chance to improve their rankings. Pakistan will play three Test matches against the host nation, England.  India and Sri Lanka will clash in a two-Test series starting August 15.

Abdullah Shafique, the in-form Pakistan batter, also rose in the ICC Test batting rankings. He scored an unbeaten 160 runs in the first innings of the second red-ball game against the Roston Chase-led team. Abdullah jumped 25 places on Wednesday to reach the 32nd position. He has 607 rating points.

However, Shan Masood and Salman Ali Agha dropped points to reach the 38th and 39th positions. Masood scored a hundred in the campaign opener against the Windies, but he was ruled out of the next game after injuring his finger.

In the rankings for bowlers, Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan gained five places while the West Indies fast bowler dropped four spots. Sajid took eight wickets and played a big role in his team’s victory in the second Test. He is in 30th position and has 605 rating points.

There was no change in the top 15 bowlers of the ICC Men’s ODI rankings, but Afghanistan’s star bowler Allah Ghazanfar gained 15 places to reach 55th place.  Ghazanfar took three wickets for 29 runs from his nine overs in the third ODI against Ireland in  Belfast on Monday (August 10).