Hazlewood, Lyon rise in Test bowlers' rankings, Bumrah continues to lead

Dubai, March 6 (IANS) Australia's Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon have narrowed the gap with ace Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the latest ICC Men's Test Player Rankings following their exceptional performance in the opening game against New Zealand.

With India pace spearhead Bumrah leading the way on the list for Test bowlers, both pacer Hazlewood (up one place to fourth) and spinner Nathan Lyon (up two spots to sixth) have been rewarded for the performance in Wellington.

The Aussie duo shared 14 wickets between them in Australia's emphatic 172-run victory in the opening Test in Wellington.

Hazlewood picked a pair of New Zealand wickets in each innings while Lyon helped himself to 10 scalps in total as Australia dominated the contest at Basin Reserve.

New Zealand's Matt Henry and Glenn Phillips each collected a five-wicket haul during that first Test against Australia, with the former moving up seven places to 18th on the list for Test bowlers and the latter improving 19 spots to 48th.

In the batting chart, Australia batter Cameron Green has advanced towards the top 20 after his unbeaten century helped Australia defeat New Zealand by 172 runs in the first Test in Wellington.

Green, who was named Player of the Match for his 174 not out in the first innings, has moved up 22 places to 23rd position.

New Zealand batter Kane Williamson remained on top of the batting chart despite scores of just zero and nine in Wellington while Steve Smith, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne slipped down the rankings.

Smith has dropped a position to third (behind Joe Root) after scores of 31 and zero, the first time he has gone below 800 rating points since 2014. Labuschagne is out of the top 10 for the first time since December 2019 after managing just three runs in the match.

With Head also slipping one slot, India batters Virat Kohli (one spot to be placed eight, Yashaswi Jaiswal (up two places to 10th) and Rohit Sharma (up two places to 11th) have all gained in the rankings.

The latest weekly update to the men’s rankings also considers performances in the one-off Test between Afghanistan and Ireland in Abu Dhabi.

Mark Adair has moved up 30 slots to 69th position among bowlers after finishing with an eight-wicket match haul that helped Ireland win their first Test in history.

Andy Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Paul Stirling and Andy McBrine have all moved up within the top 100 in the batting rankings.

Afghanistan batter Hashmatullah Shahidi has gained five slots to reach 81st position while Naveed Zadran has moved up 32 places to reach 79th position among bowlers.