Pakistan captain Babar Azam and speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi improved his Test ranking, the latest ICC Men's Test Rankings showed Wednesday, as Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 in the long format.

The Pakistani skipper has jumped two spots to the fourth position. Above him are Australia's Steve Smith, England's Joe Root, and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.

Babar, who managed to score just 76 runs in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka, benefitted from the demotion of Australia's Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head. Labuschagne and Head lost their rating despite finishing seventh and eighth highest-scorer in the Ashes Test series.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, who bagged six wickets in two Tests against Sri Lanka, has jumped three positions to sixth.

After the Ashes series retention, Australia's Steve Steve Smith jumped from fifth to third position. England's Joe Root, the third-highest run-scorer in the Ashes Tests, grabbed second position.

New Zealand's Kane Williamson, who last played a Test back in March this year, retained the top position with a ranking of 883. Williamson got injured during this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) and his participation in the upcoming World Cup is also unlikely.

England’s Joe Root featured on all three lists, advancing one slot to take second place behind New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, in the batters list with 859 rating points, while sliding up three spaces for 64th position in the bowlers list (334 points) and moved up one again for his sixth position (286 points) among the all-rounders.

Harry Brook’s 363 runs for England saw him rise to a career-best ninth place from 11th, with 773 points, his first time in the top ten of the batters list, while his teammates, Jonny Bairstow and Zack Crawley rose to 17th (from 19th) and 29th (from 35th) with 683 and 618 points respectively. This is Crawley’s personal best ranking and shares his position with Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan, who rose four slots from 33rd place.

Pakistan’s batsmen also saw significant gains following their innings and 222-run triumph over Sri Lanka. Abdullah Shafique’s outstanding double century (201 from 326 balls) saw him sail 27 slots to 21st place, with 657 points, while Agha Salman’s unbeaten 132 off 154 also gave him a remarkable, 23-slot jump to a career-best 35th from 58th, with 601 points. He also rose six places to another career-best 33rd (118 points) in the all-rounders list. Their teammate Shan Masood advanced seven spots to 67th with 444 points.

Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin leads the bowlers' chart with a rating of 879. His compatriot Ravindra Jadeja climbed up to third position.

England's veteran pacer Stuart Broad grabbed fourth position which would be his last ranking as the latter took retirement from Test cricket.

Pakistan’s Naseem Shah went up seven spots to 37th and 530 points among the bowlers, while his teammate Noman Ali reached a career-best 42nd place from 55th (497 points) after taking 7/70 in the second innings of their Test against Sri Lanka. He also rose eight slots to 38th in the all-rounders list with 100 points.

Rewards were also earned by England bowler Ollie Robinson (6th from 9th with 762 points), Mark Wood (career-best 21st from 23rd with 640 points) and Chris Woakes (23rd from 31st with 624 points). Woakes also entered the top 10 of the all-rounders list after going up one slot from 11th with 229 rating points, while Wood stepped up to 24th from 25th with 149 points. Moeen Ali is just four places below him among the all-rounders in 28th position after gaining four slots from 32nd with 130 points.

Mitchell Starc skipped two spots to 12th (742 points), while Todd Murphy rose nine slots to 57th and a personal best rating of 330 points in the bowlers list and advanced 20 spots to 60th in the all-rounders list.