Karachi:Pakistan’s centurions Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam improved their ICC Test Rankings despite the team in green lost the series to New Zealand.
Ali rose two places to No.10 and Shafiq climbed one spot to No.21. Babar Azam, who made a fighting 51 in Pakistan’s second innings, also rose three places to No.35.
However, all of Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez and Imam-ul-Haq suffered failures and it reflected in the rankings update. Hafeez – the Abu Dhabi Test was his last – slipped seven spots to No.65, while skipper Ahmed and opener Imam lost one place each to reach No.32 and No.97 respectively.
Meanwhile, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson moved up one spot to the No.2 and is now only behind India’s Virat Kohli.
Williamson scored 89 and 139 in Abu Dhabi to put New Zealand on course for a historic Test series win against Pakistan. It propelled him to a career-high total of 913 ratings points, just seven behind India skipper Virat Kohli. Williamson is now the first from his country to get past 900 ratings points.
Henry Nicholls, who also scored a century in the same innings, jumped eight places to break into the top 10 at No.9, while BJ Watling moved up four places to No.22.