Afghanistan Cricket team’s Rahmat Shah has made significant jumps in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after guiding his to a seven-wicket victory over Ireland – their first Test win in the one-off Test series. Meanwhile, Afghanistan became the joint second-fastest to a maiden Test-match win, alongside Pakistan and England.
Rahmat gains big
Rahmat batted brilliantly in both the innings with scores of 98 and 76 respectively to lead the charge. As a result, the star batsman jumped 88 places to reach 89th position in the latest ICC Rankings. Currently, Rahmat Shah tops the ranking chart among batsmen from his country. Skipper Asghar Afghani, who is in the 106th spot after jumping 24 places following his knock of 67 runs sits behind Rahmat Shah. Hashmatullah Shahidi is another Afghanistan batsman to advance, moving up three slots to 110.
On the bowler’s list, fast bowler Yamin Ahmadzai and leg-spinner Rashid Khan have come up the ranks quite fast following their spectacular show during the Dehradun Test. Yamin, who returned with six wickets in the match gained 45 places to reach 50th position. Rashid, on the other hand, has jumped 50 places to the 67th spot following his seven wickets haul including a fifer. Notably, this is Rashid’s first five-wicket haul in Test cricket, who ranks one and third in T20I and ODI rankings respectively.
For Ireland, debutant Andy Balbirnie has gained 73 slots to reach 145th position after a second-innings knock of 82 while among bowlers, Stuart Thompson has gained 18 slots to reach 64th position after taking three wickets in the match. Also, Kevin O-Brien has jumped four places to 68 while pacer Tim Murtagh has also gained in the list for batsmen. His scores of 54* and 27 batting at No 11 saw Murtagh jump 59 places to 140th spot.
Meanwhile, this is the second Test for both the teams and will need another six matches to find a full place in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings.
MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 19 March 2019)
Batsmen (top 10)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Virat Kohli | India | 922 | 53.76 | 937 v Eng at Southampton 2018 |
| 2 | ( – ) | K Williamson | NZ | 913 | 53.38 | 915 v Ban at Hamilton 2019 |
| 3 | ( – ) | C Pujara | India | 881 | 51.18 | 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Steve Smith | Aus | 857 | 61.37 | 947 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 5 | ( – ) | Henry Nicholls | NZ | 778*! | 45.75 | 778 v Ban at Wellington 2019 |
| 6 | ( – ) | Joe Root | Eng | 763 | 49.51 | 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015 |
| 7 | ( – ) | David Warner | Aus | 756 | 48.2 | 880 v NZ at Perth 2015 |
| 8 | ( – ) | A Markram | SA | 719* | 43.8 | 759 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018 |
| 9 | ( – ) | Q de Kock | SA | 718 | 39.31 | 802 v NZ at Hamilton 2017 |
| 10 | ( – ) | Faf du Plessis | SA | 702 | 42.95 | 734 v India at Centurion 2018 |
Bowlers (top 10)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Pat Cummins | Aus | 878*! | 22.02 | 878 v SL at Canberra 2019 |
| 2 | ( – ) | J Anderson | Eng | 862 | 26.93 | 903 v India at Lord’s 2018 |
| 3 | ( – ) | Kagiso Rabada | SA | 851 | 21.77 | 902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018 |
| 4 | ( – ) | V Philander | SA | 813 | 21.64 | 912 v India at Johannesburg 2013 |
| 5 | ( – ) | Neil Wagner | NZ | 801! | 27.51 | 801 v Ban at Wellington 2019 |
| 6 | ( – ) | R Jadeja | India | 794 | 23.68 | 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017 |
| 7 | ( – ) | Trent Boult | NZ | 787 | 27.54 | 825 v Eng at Lord’s 2015 |
| 8= | ( – ) | Jason Holder | WI | 770* | 27.69 | 778 v Eng at Antigua 2019 |
| ( – ) | M Abbas | Pak | 770* | 18.86 | 838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018 | |
| 10 | ( – ) | R Ashwin | India | 763 | 25.43 | 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016 |
All-rounders (top five)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Jason Holder | WI | 439/* | 448 v Eng at Antigua 2019 |
| 2 | ( – ) | S Al Hasan | Ban | 399 | 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017 |
| 3 | ( – ) | R Jadeja | India | 387 | 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Ben Stokes | Eng | 357 | 395 v WI at Lord’s 2017 |
| 5 | ( – ) | V Philander | SA | 326 | 377 v SL at Galle 2018 |