Joe Root is back above Steve Smith at the top of the International Cricket Council Test batting rankings.
Root’s 159 runs in his two innings in Dubai were not enough to stop England going 1-0 down with one to play after the second Test against Pakistan.
But the prolific No4, who with 1,278 has made more Test runs than anyone this year, is back at the top of the table – by just three ranking points from Smith.
The Yorkshireman’s seesaw battle with the new Australia captain for the ICC’s No1 spot has lasted throughout 2015.
It will be Root too who has the next opportunity to further enhance his standing when England face Pakistan again in Sharjah in the final Test on Sunday. The all-time Pakistan Test leading run-scorer, Younus Khan, is also back up in the table, to fifth, after his hundred and half-century in Dubai.
The Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah took eight wickets in the second Test, a driving force in the hosts’ 178-run win and also a performance which has taken him above the England seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad into second place in the bowlers’ rankings behind only South Africa’s Dale Steyn.
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