Riding on their impressive performances in the first Test against Bangladesh, New Zealand duo Neil Wagner and Tom Latham have moved to No.11 in the bowling and batting charts, respectively of the ICC Test Rankings, released on Monday.
New Zealand thoroughly outplayed the visitors in Hamilton, thrashing them by an innings-and-52-run to go one-nil up in the three-match series. New Zealand’s top-three made merry with the bat as Latham and his opening parter Jeet Raval scored centuries while skipper Kane Williamson scored an unbeaten double century, helping the team post a record total of 715/6 declared.
Latham, who scored 161 against Bangladesh, jumped by one place to take the 11th spot in the ICC Test Rankings. On the other hand, Raval, who scored his maiden century, jumped five spots to No.33.
But it was Williamson who made the most of his outing against the Tigers at home. His second career double century helped him reach a career-best 915 ratings point. The right-handed batsman is now just seven points off Virat Kohli at the top of the batters’ charts. Williamson also became only the second player from New Zealand to cross 900 points in the rankings, after Richard Hadlee, who had reached 909 points among the bowlers. With two more Tests in the series, Williamson could displace Kohli as the No.1-ranked Test batsman.
Colin de Grandhomme, who smashed 76 not out off 53 balls, has moved up six places in the batting charts and is currently at No.60.
Among bowlers, Wagner took seven wickets to move up to No.11 in the bowlers’ rankings. From Bangladesh, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar, all centurions in Hamilton, moved up in the batting charts. Iqbal moved up 11 places to No.25 after scoring a quickfire 126 in the first innings. Mahmudullah climbed up 12 spots to No.40, while Sarkar jumped a massive 25 places to No.67.