Pakistan has retained sixth position on the ICC Test Championship table after recording a convincing 196-run victory over the West Indies in the second Test at St Kitts to draw the two-match Test series.
Pakistan was in a danger of swapping places with seventh-ranked West Indies after the home side had won the first Test by 40 runs in Guyana. However, Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and Opener Taufeeq Umar scored sparkling centuries in the second innings while, Spinners Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman and Mohammad Hafeez shared 15 wickets among them to ensure their victory.
However, the drawn series meant Pakistan had conceded one rating point and was now on sixth rank. Meanwhile, Misbah’s third Test century had provided him a jump of eight places which had earned him a career-best ranking of 22nd.
He was now the second highest-ranked Pakistan batsman after Younis Khan who was on a 17th position despite missing the series. Taufeeq’s fifth Test century had given him a boost of 20 places and he now sat on a 53rd position. Umar Akmal was the other Pakistani batsman to head in the right direction as he was now on a 35th position after rising two places following his innings of 56 and 30.
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Saeed Ajmal had achieved a career-best ranking of 27th. Saeed, who had figures of 3-56 and 3-79, had moved up four places and was now Pakistan’s second highest-ranked bowler after Umar Gul who missed the second Test. Rehman, who had match figures of 6-120, had improved his ranking by nine places and he was now on a 31st spot.