Kusal Perera makes big leap, Kagiso Rabada loses top spot

Kusal Perera, the Sri Lanka batsman, climbed a massive 58 spots in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen after his colossal effort – a 200-ball 153* – guided the visitors to a thrilling one-wicket victory against South Africa in Durban on Saturday, 16 February.

The epic knock helped Sri Lanka take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series, and Perera now sits handsomely at No.40 in the rankings, with a career-high rating of 556.

The other big news to emerge after the latest update to the Tests rankings pertained to the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Bowlers, with Pat Cummins leading the charts – he becomes the first Australian to top the bowlers’ rankings since Glenn McGrath in 2006.

Despite the narrow loss, South Africa had something to cheer about too. They now have two batsmen in the top 10 of the batting rankings – Faf du Plessis, who scored a sublime 90 in the second innings in Durban, jumped seven spots to No.10, and Quinton de Kock, who scored 80 and 55, moved to No.8, jumping four places.

Du Plessis is joined by Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne at No.10, while de Kock is joint-eighth with team-mate Aiden Markram. Sri Lanka’s middle-order batsman Dhananjaya de Silva was another significant mover in the batting charts – he moved up six places to No.57.

Duanne Olivier also skipped three places to move up to No.22

Elsewhere, Hashim Amla, who scored just 3 and 16 in Durban, slipped out of the top 10 and is currently at No.13 while Kusal Mendis, with 12 and 0, descended five spots to No.29.

Among the bowlers, Cummins’ gain was Rabada’s loss. The South African speedster slipped down to No.3 after managing just three wickets in two innings in Durban. Cummins is now No.1 with 878 points, and is followed by England’s Jimmy Anderson, who has 862 points.

South Africa paceman Duanne Olivier also skipped three places to move up to No.22 with a career-best rating of 666. Vishwa Fernando, the Sri Lanka fast bowler, who took two four-wicket hauls in Durban, jumped 26 places to break into the top 50 at No.49.

There were no changes in the top 20 of the all-rounder rankings. Jason Holder retained the top spot with 439 points, with Kasun Rajitha at No.89 (up 17 places) and Vishwa Fernando at No.95 (up 23 places) making significant gains.

Here are the Test batting rankings

Here are the Test bowling rankings

Here are the Test all-rounders’ rankings

Get the latest Cricket News and updates, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.