New Zealand pacer Tim Southee moves to No.5 in ICC Test rankings

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee achieved career best ranking

The New Zealand quick, Tim Southee has achieved his career best No.5 rank in the recent ICC rankings for Test bowlers. The right-arm bowler is the highest ranked New Zealander in the list, ahead of Trent Boult who dropped two places to sit at 9th spot.

The 25-year-old moved up by three places, after impressive performance in the first Test against West Indies which the Kiwis won comfortably by 186 runs. Southee claimed four West Indian wickets in the first innings before picking up another two in the second. He ended the Test with a match haul of 6-51. Mark Craig, who started off his Test match career breaking a few records on the way, at rank 53 is the next New Zealander in the list.

Southee’s rise means that the top five bowlers in the list are fast bowlers, led by the South African Dale Steyn.

The West Indian bowling attack marked their return to international cricket making a comeback in the rankings. Each of the comeback bowlers – Kemar Roach (15), Suleiman Benn (35) and Jerome Taylor (75) returned to the ranking list.

ICC rankings for Test bowlers:

Rank	Player	Team	Rating
1	Dale Steyn	South Africa	898
2	Ryan Harris	Australia	870
3	Vernon Philander	South Africa	865
4	Mitchell Johnson	Australia	844
5	Tim Southee	New Zealand	799
6	Saeed Ajmal	Pakistan	787
7	Rangana Herath	Sri Lanka	774
8	Ravichandran Ashwin	India	744
9	Peter Siddle	Australia	733
9	Trent Boult	New Zealand	733

In the rankings for Test batsmen, West Indian batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who once again remained unbeaten by the end of an innings, edged past Kumar Sangakkara to the second place. The batsmen rankings too continue to be dominated by a Protean, with AB de Villiers enjoying a 41 point lead at the top.

New Zealand’s Tom Latham moved up an astonishing 74 places to be placed at 66th rank. Latham scored half centuries in both the innings of the Test match. Including Latham as many as 4 Kiwi batsmen witnessed a rise in their rankings.

Kane Williamson, riding on his sixth Test century moved up by one place to break into the top-20 for the first time in his career. Jimmy Neesham, who also scored a century in the match is placed at 45. The wicket-keeper batsman BJ Watling jumped 8 places to occupy the 35th spot.

However, experienced batsmen including Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum suffered setback in the rankings. Taylor and McCullum dropped three and six places to be ranked at 9 and 15 respectively. Opener Peter Fulton who failed in both the innings went down by 12 places to be ranked 85th.

After a disappointing outing with the bat, most of the West Indian batsmen dropped places.

ICC rankings for Test batsmen:

Rank	Player	Team	Rating
1	AB de Villiers	South Africa	922
2	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	West Indies	881
3	Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	879
4	Hashim Amla	South Africa	873
5	David Warner	Australia	871
6	Misbah-ul-Haq	Pakistan	824
7	Cheteshwar Pujara	India	819
8	Michael Clarke	Australia	818
9	Ross Taylor	New Zealand	817
10	Virat Kohli	India	784