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Dimuth Karunaratne has edged closer to a top-ten spot following his 118 and 66 in second Test against Bangladesh
Praveen Jayawickrama‘s 11 for 178 in Sri Lanka’s 209-run win over Bangladesh in their second Test in Pallekele has helped him enter the ICC Test bowlers’ rankings at No. 48. Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who scored 118 and 66 in that game, moved up from No. 15 to No. 11.
Twenty-two-year-old Jayawickrama’s match haul was the best by a Sri Lankan on Test debut. He took 6 for 92 in the first innings as Bangladesh were bowled out for 251 in response to the home side’s 493 for 7 declared. And then, when Bangladesh were chasing 437 for an unlikely victory, Jayawickrama chipped in with 5 for 86.
Karunaratne, meanwhile, is well off his career-best sixth position, reached in August 2019, and finished just outside the top ten in the list headed by Kane Williamson, with Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root and Virat Kohli bringing off the top five. Just below them, Rishabh Pant, Henry Nicholls and Rohit Sharma all moved up a spot as Babar Azam slipped to ninth, above David Warner, following a first-ball duck in his only dig in Pakistan’s innings-and-116-run win over Zimbabwe in their first Test in Harare.
From Bangladesh’s point of view, Tamim Iqbal‘s 92 and 24 took him three places up to No. 27, while Mushfiqur Rahim (40 and 40) and Mominul Haque (49 and 32) moved up a slot apiece to 21st and 30th respectively.
After the Harare win, Hasan Ali, who has been in the middle of a remarkable comeback to international cricket, rose 15 slots to a career-best 20th spot among bowlers. He picked up 4 for 53 and 5 for 36 as Zimbabwe put up only 176 and 134, while Pakistan put up 426 in their only hit.
Fawad Alam, another comeback man for Pakistan, was their best batter in the game with 140 in close to five hours. That took him up 31 places to a career-best 47th position. It was his third century in seven Test matches since returning to the side in August 2020.
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