Chittagong, Sep 8: Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon has moved up to take a career-best eighth position, in the latest ICC Test Player Rankings released on Friday, after a match-winning performance in Chittagong that helped his side win by seven wickets and draw the two-Test series against Bangladesh.
Lyon’s career-best haul of 13 for 154, the best ever performance by an Australia bowler in Asia, translated into huge gains as he has moved up nine positions to break into the top 10 for the first time.
His previous best place was 12th in May last year while his highest in terms of rating points was 696 in February last year, 52 less than his present 752 points.
Lyon was named player of the match and with 22 wickets in the series, shared the player of the series award with opener David Warner (807), who has moved up one place to fifth position, displacing Indian skipper Virat Kohli (806), after scores of 123 and eight in Chittagong.
Warner had added a crucial 152 runs for the third wicket with Peter Handscomb in the first innings and his middle-order partner too has made significant gains, moving up 15 slots to a career-best 25th place.
The other Australia players to gain in the latest rankings include hard-hitting batsman Glen Maxwell (up 16 positions to 88th) and left-arm spinner Ashton Agar (up seven places to 77th).
Spinner Mehedi Hassan has gained one slot to reach 29th position after his first-innings haul of three wickets while pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman’s five wickets in the match have seen him gain 12 slots to reach 43rd position.
Meanwhile, Australia has slipped one place to take fifth position in the latest ICC Test Team Rankings following the drawn series.
Australia started the series at 100 points but is now on 97 points, the same as New Zealand but behind on decimal points. Bangladesh has gained five points to reach 74 points but remains in ninth position.
