Rangana Herath signs off at No.8 on bowlers’ table

It happens rarely, teams coming from far away and winning Test matches – quite comfortably at that – in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. That’s what Zimbabwe and England have just done, beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively in their first Test contests.

Rangana Herath, the iconic Sri Lankan left-arm spinner, finished his international career in Galle, and didn’t have one of his great outings. He picked up just three wickets over two innings, and that saw him slip from No.7 to No.8 in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for bowlers.

Returning to Sylhet, for the Test match that finished first, at the end of Zimbabwe’s 151-run win over Bangladesh, the noteworthy performers from Zimbabwe were rewarded.

Hamilton Masakadza, the Zimbabwe captain, hit 52 and 48 on a tough pitch, and that helped him gain 12 spots to move up to No.34 with a career-high 568 points, while the other batting star for the team, Sean Williams, who scored 88 and 20, also earned a career-high 429 points and got to a career-best No.77, a jump of 17 places.

From Bangladesh’s point of view, the standout performer was Taijul Islam, the left-arm spinner, who had 11 wickets in the match. Islam’s feat took him up five positions to No.31, his best ever, with a career-high points tally of 569.

Across in Galle, where England won by 211 runs, Keaton Jennings and Ben Foakes were the big performers with the bat and Moeen Ali and Jack Leach with the ball.

Jennings, who scored 46 and 146* jumped a remarkable 41 places to No.46 with 518 points – his best ever, while Foakes, a centurion in his first Test innings, entered the rankings at No.69.

Ali moved up four places to No.27 after picking up eight wickets in the game, while Leach achieved a career-best ranking of No.74 – up 38 spots – with career-best points after returning five wickets in the game.

For Sri Lanka, the only player with a performance of note was off-spinner Dilruwan Perera, who picked up seven wickets in the game. He gained five spots to be joint No.19 with Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan.

For all the ranking updates, click here.