Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has dropped out of the top 10 in the latest ICC Test rankings for bowlers. He was left out of the playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh which Pakistan lost by six wickets and as a consequence, lost out on a few rating points. Shaheen had struggled in the first Test picking up only two wickets for 88 runs after sending down 30 overs. Along with Shaheen, even Babar Azam has dropped out of the top 10 and this leaves only Mohammad Rizwan representing Pakistan in the top 10 rankings among batters, bowlers and all-rounders.
Coming back to Shaheen, the left-arm pacer is now at the 11th position with 709 rating points to his name. The second Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh saw pace bowlers dominating the proceedings and Shaheen might have had an impact and kept his place in the top 10. Pakistan's red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie had defended the decision to drop him while reiterating the fact that Shaheen is one of the top bowlers in the country.
"Shaheen's been given some feedback. He has had an interesting last couple of weeks. He's just become a father and we saw an opportunity where he can be allowed to go be with his family as well. He is working on some things on his bowling to be as effective as he can be and he has been working well with Azhar Mahmood. We certainly want to see Shaheen at his very best as we have a lot of cricket moving forward and he is going to play a big role in that. Shaheen's a quality player and a quality human and he is going to play a big role in the next 6 months for sure," Gillespie had said.
As far as the rankings are concerned, New Zealand's Matt Henry jumped into the top 10 with Shaheen dropping out. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Asitha Fernando has climbed nine places to the 8th position with 734 rating points following his impressive show in the first two Test matches against England picking up 14 wickets.
