Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah has risen up to the second spot in the ICC Test Rankings released on Tuesday morning.
Yasir, who has achieved the number-two ranking for the first time in his career, picked up eight for 180 in Pakistan’s 178 runs victory against England at Dubai on Monday, which has earned him 25 points.
The winning performance has taken the 29-year-old above the pace trio of England’s James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and New Zealand’s Trent Boult.
Shah recently also became the fastest Pakistani bowler to take 50 Test wickets and currently has 69 victims in just 11 Test outings.
Given that Yasir is still in the qualification period for bowlers, it is likely that he will be able to further reduce the 78-point gap with world number-one Dale Steyn if his extraordinary run of form continues in the Sharjah Test against England which commences on November 1.
Younis Khan, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq have also advanced in the latest rankings after good performances in the Dubai Test.
Younis has returned to the top five in fifth position following knocks of 56 and 118 while Misbah has moved up five places to 11th following his scores of 102 and 87.
Asad Shafiq also achieved a career-high ranking of 12th after he scored 83 and 87.
For this performance, Asad earned 43 points, which, in turn, has put him ahead of Virat Kohli, Ross Taylor, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brendon McCullum and Faf du Plessis.
Beating England at the Dubai Test has given Pakistan an excellent opportunity to achieve the second place in the ICC Test Rankings.
However, to make this happen, it will have to win the Sharjah Test.
In this case, Pakistan will join Australia on 106 points but will be ranked above Australia when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.
