Also in this edition:

In Italy, Roberto Mancini returns as national team manager. RC Lens are continuing their strong pre-season form. Bradley Barcola could be set to leave Paris Saint-Germain for Liverpool. In tennis, Arthur Fils is causing concern, while Adrian Mannarino is causing a surprise. In the NBA, Draymond Green has extended his contract with the Golden State Warriors.

The 2026 Kansas City Chiefs offense will be under a microscope as the unit hopes to make more explosive plays. Jon Gruden, known as an offensive-minded coach, weighed in on the team’s struggles in recent years.

“The standards on offense in Kansas City are sky high. They’ve always had very high standards. I got to sit there in training camp and watch them last year,” said Gruden. “In 2022, number one scoring offense, number one total offense, number one passing offense, but it’s been on a decline every year since. Take a look at it. They went from first to 15th, the 15th, 20-first last year. That’s not up to our standards in Kansas City in scoring.”

Advertisement

Gruden was a special guest of head coach Andy Reid at Kansas City’s training camp practice sessions last year.

Yet 12 weeks later, Rogers was back in the pool doing rehab. And by summer 2024 she was in Paris winning Paralympic gold. But perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is that she is quicker now than she was pre-accident.

“I never in a million years thought that I could be faster,” Rogers, who is unable to straighten her right arm, tells BBC Sport. “Yes, it looks a bit different and there is definitely an impairment there. But I’ve worked harder, I’m fitter, I’m stronger.

“My message is just ‘don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do’. We’re all different. We’ve all got our own stuff. But I think anything is totally doable if you put your mind to it.”

Not many Para-athletes have done what Rogers has.

It was last year that she resolved to put her “big girl pants on” and act upon a notion she’d had for a while to test where she was in the 200m fly. And the first time she did swim it, she realised she was only just a fraction shy of her pre-accident best.

With that, her mind was made up. She spoke to the selectors and it was agreed that, as long as three other athletes did not post faster times, she could compete at the Commonwealths. They didn’t, and Rogers was in.

“I found out a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been so, so excited ever since,” said the Edinburgh University student before the heats.

“There’s no pressure. I think it’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to stand up there and and to show other people with impairments that, no matter what you are told, and no matter what gets thrown at you, like there’s a way through it.

“We quite often get told we can’t. And this is my way of proving that we can.”

Former Ireland and Australia head coach Joe Schmidt will work with Ulster in a consultancy role focused on the province’s coaching pathway.

The position of coach development advisor is newly created for the Kiwi and does not involve working with the senior team.

As Ulster statement said Schmidt “will support the ongoing development of coaches across the province, helping to strengthen a clear and connected coaching pathway” throughout the organisation.

The 60-year-old finished with up with the Wallabies this month after a win over Italy in the Nations Championship ended a run of six straight defeats.

“Ulster has a proud rugby tradition and further developing the coaching pathway in the region is something that we believe can add value,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt is one of Ireland’s most successful ever rugby coaches having led the national side between 2013 and 2019, winning back-to-back Six Nations titles in his first two campaigns before a Grand Slam in 2018.

He was also at the helm for Ireland’s first ever win over the All Blacks and maiden triumph over the Springboks on South African soil, both in 2016.

Prior to that, Schmidt had worked as an assistant with Clermont and served as Leinster’s head coach for three years, winning a pair of Heineken Cups with the latter.

Schmidt has recently been linked with a return to the RDS with head coach Leo Cullen set to leave the side after more than a decade in charge at the end of the 2026-27 season.

Alas Pilipinas women land in Vietnam for the SEA V Cup leg 1 in Hanoi.–ALAS PILIPINAS PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Alas Pilipinas women’s team has arrived in Vietnam ahead of the SEA V Cup Leg 1, which starts Friday at the Dong Anh Gymnasium in Hanoi.

The team’s social media page on Wednesday afternoon posted a photo of the squad arriving safely in Vietnam two days before the opener.

Japanese coach Taka Minowa makes his debut as the new women’s national volleyball team coach on Friday against host Vietnam, the champion of last year’s second leg and runner-up for six legs.

READ: Alas Pilipinas tops Myanmar for 5th place in SEA V Cup

Bannering the team are returning mainstays Jia De Guzman, Alyssa Solomon, Bella Belen, Eya Laure, Vanie Gandler, Dell Palomata, Fifi Sharma, Thea Gagate, Mars Alba, Justine Jazareno, Jen Nierva, and Dawn Catindig.

The Alas team, with the same core, has won four straight bronze medals since 2024.

Also making their Alas debut are last year’s PVL on Tour MVP Erika Santos and National University’s Vange Alinsug and Celine Marsh. Niña Ytang, who debuted in Candon last June in the AVC Women’s Cup, also joined the squad.

READ: Alas Pilipinas men head to another fifth-place match in SEA V Cup

The Philippines will play a single round robin, which determines the podium finishers.

Alas takes on Thailand on Saturday, before facing Indonesia on Sunday in its first international tournament ahead of the Asian Games in September. Leg 2 is set next week in Thailand.

Home Affairs is poised to finish the 2026 racing season as Australia’s premier freshman sire, following a dominant debut crop from Coolmore’s exciting young stallion that has surpassed all expectations.

While the exact number of stallion premierships he will secure won’t be finalised until the season’s final day, one significant title has effectively been locked away for months.

The son of I Am Invincible has joined the elite company of Danehill and Extreme Choice by siring a Golden Slipper winner from his first crop, with Guest House clinching this year’s juvenile feature. Even without the $2.95 million prize money from that victory, Home Affairs would still comfortably lead the first-season sires’ premiership by prizemoney.

Entering the final four days of the season, Home Affairs had already produced 16 winners – the most of any first-season sire – from 44 runners who had amassed $4,948,300 in prizemoney.

His closest rival is Newgate’s Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside, whose progeny have earned $950,833.

Home Affairs’ inaugural crop comprised 145 foals conceived off an introductory service fee of $110,000 (inc GST), and Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier commented that the stallion had delivered everything the ownership group had hoped for.

“I’m delighted for our partners in Home Affairs as he’s crowned Champion First-Season Sire,” Magnier said.

“He was purchased as a yearling in the first year we went out and sourced colts to race and to be able to reward their trust in such a way gives us all a great thrill.

“Home Affairs has been followed on by the likes of Shinzo, Switzerland and Private Life, so our partners have got a few irons in the fire yet, but to land Home Affairs straight away is what we dreamed of.

“We think he is a Champion Sire of the future and that his stock are only going to improve from two years to three years, so the future is bright.”

Beyond Guest House, his headline performer, Home Affairs has also produced Listed Redoute’s Choice Stakes winner Gin Twist as his other Australian black-type winner.

Magic Millions National 2YO Classic runner-up Natural Fling and VOBIS Gold Rush winner and Listed placegetter Marffiano have also made significant contributions to the stallion’s outstanding first-season earnings.

Home Affairs also remains a chance of claiming the Champion 2YO Sire title for 2026, trailing Snitzel by just $32,445 entering the final days of the season.

His hopes suffered a setback when Saturday Party was scratched from Wednesday’s Randwick meeting, while Snitzel still has representatives at Randwick and Kembla Grange before Home Affairs relies on three youngsters nominated to race at Geelong and Scone on Friday.

Regardless of the outcome, Home Affairs has already been rewarded in the breeding barn, with his service fee increasing from $82,500 over the past two seasons to $176,000 for 2026.

He is also set to cover an elite book of mares, including Guest House’s dam Flamboyant Lass, alongside Group 1 performers Zougotcha, Learning To Fly and Nimalee.

Check out the latest racing odds available on Australian betting sites for the upcoming season.

Trainer Tony Gollan of Brisbane has dispatched talented gelding Boomtown Boss south to Flemington for the Aurie’s Star Handicap this Saturday. The move is intended to take the horse out of his usual environment before his first-up run.

The Group 3 Aurie’s Star Handicap, a 1200-metre race, could potentially serve as the starting point for an extended Melbourne stay or simply be a stepping stone on the way back to Queensland for the Summer Carnival.

Gollan is relying on the residual fitness Boomtown Boss acquired during the Brisbane Winter Carnival to give him a strong chance in his first attempt at Flemington’s famous straight track.

“I was having a preparation with him in the winter that started off well and then I really just ran out of luck with him,” Gollan commented. “I decided to abort it and it’s a long time to our summer. He’s a horse that I think a bit of travel will bring him on quite a lot. He’s a very busy horse at home and very comfortable in his own environment and I’ve noticed with a few of the horses that are like him, if you can get them away and get them into a new area, it brings them on mentally and that’s what I feel like I can do with this bloke. On his best form he is up to a race like this, as you can see by his runs during the winter, and I just thought travelling him would be ideal for him.”

Gollan does not foresee any issues with the straight track for Boomtown Boss.

He suggested that the sprinter is well-suited to expansive tracks and distances around 1300m to 1400m, believing Flemington’s 1200m straight course would play to these strengths.

“He’s a horse that likes a bit of room, that can get into his gallop and unleash a good turn of foot,” Gollan said. “Without him being down the straight, and it being an unknown, he probably profiles well enough from what we’ve seen on big tracks like Eagle Farm, to really enjoy the straight.”

The trainer confirmed that Boomtown Boss has been in Melbourne for some time, based at Ciaron Maher’s stable in Cranbourne, and has shown improvement during his stay.

A recent trial at Caulfield Heath was conducted to provide the gelding with more exposure to Melbourne racing conditions, and he appears to be thriving.

“We know the residual fitness of the winter carnival up here carries over in the early stages of the carnival down there.”

Gollan stated that no firm plans are in place beyond Saturday, with the horse’s performance in the Aurie’s Star Handicap to dictate his future racing plans.

“It’s a run at a time and it’s more about the experience of him being away,” Gollan remarked. “Hopefully he runs really well, as we expect, and maybe we could look to go to another race, but we could also bring him home for the summer. It really is a week-by-week thing for the horse.”

Daniel Moor, a jockey who previously rode in Melbourne and frequently rides for Gollan in Brisbane, has been booked to partner Boomtown Boss.

A total of 14 horses are entered for the Aurie’s Star Handicap, with final acceptances scheduled for Wednesday morning. Consider the racing odds for the event.

While the rest of college basketball sleeps as the calendar flips from Nov. 5 to Nov. 6, a 1,000-seat gym on Elm Street in sleepy Greenville, Illinois, will be gearing up for an unhinged round-robin series involving a group of hoops madmen pushing the game beyond its perceived limits. 

At midnight, the first allowable moment for the Division III season to begin, the two fastest teams at any level of college basketball will tip-off off their season to little external fanfare.

The Grinnell vs. Greenville game isn’t scheduled to be nationally televised, and it won’t be contested between players on seven-figure NIL deals. There will be no NBA scouts in attendance and no pyrotechnics accompanying the starting lineup introductions.

Besides, the starters won’t last more than a couple minutes anyway. Their lungs will be burning 90 seconds into a matchup between two programs that have co-authored the Division III record book with a blistering strategy known simply as the “System.”

The game might approach 300 total points, and its style would seem extreme anywhere else. But the constant full-court pressure, stream of astoundingly quick shots and mass substitutions will be normal for two teams playing at a pace that makes even the fastest Division I programs look slow.

Then, after their track meet is complete sometime in the middle of the night, they’ll both gear up to do it against fellow System program Covenant College over the ensuing 36 hours. The Scots are a relatively new adherent to the philosophy, which calls for possessions to last no longer than 12 seconds.

It made them them the perfect candidate to round out a three-game, season-opening showcase celebrating a style of play that most believe will never be fully adopted in Division I.

“No one else except the guy at Covenant College would even think about coming out to play two System teams in 36 hours,” said Covenant coach Josh Brown. Covenant ranked 268th in Division III in possessions per game during the 2023-24 season before Brown decided his program needed an identity.

He found one after calling an estimated 35-40 coaches, brainstorming about the merits and pitfalls of adopting the System.

“Every single one of them was like, ‘you’re going to get called crazy,’” Brown recalled. “It’s just a part of it. I was OK with being crazy. I’m already crazy for being in this profession. So being called crazy for wanting to play fast is a small price to pay.”

The next season, Covenant, which sits atop Lookout Mountain in Georgia, surged from 81.2 possessions per game to 105.2 and more than doubled its win total. Thus, the Scots became new residents in an enclave of speed demons where Grinnell and Greenville are the landords.

Programs such as Alabama, Texas A&M and Cal Poly are finding success utilizing elements of the System that have been pared down to fit within the outer limits of what most believe could be sustainable at the Division I level.

But they are snails compared to the three who will assemble in Greenville for a lab session on college basketball’s speed frontier. As the most extreme of the bunch, Greenville attempted 100+ shots in 14 of its 26 games last season. 

The last time a Division I team attempted 100+ shots against another Division I opponent was in 2016 when the Citadel did it in a double-overtime loss at UMBC. 

Alabama, commonly viewed as the standard for playing fast at the high-major level, has reached 90 shot attempts once in coach Nate Oats’ seven seasons. That was in a four-overtime game. It took the Crimson Tide 60 minutes to come within 10 attempts of the shot threshold that Greenville aims for in every 40-minute game.

System standard bearers

Grinnell, located between Iowa City and Des Moines, is the Division III standard for System success. The Pioneers are 61-19 over the past three seasons with consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Their nickname is fitting since their former coach, David Arseneault Sr., is widely credited with pioneering the System at Grinnell in the 1990s. 

His son, David Arseneault Jr., is now in charge and putting his own stamp on the System for a program that is humming. Grinnell is still running and gunning, averaging 102.9 points per game in 2025-26. But the Pioneers also finished in the top-50 nationally in defensive efficiency within the 400+ team Division III landscape last season. While they beat Greenville 161-130 head-to-head last season, they didn’t catch the Panthers in the season-long scoring race. 

When it comes to points, everyone is chasing Greenville coach George Barber, who adopted the System from Grinnell and has pushed it even further. The Panthers averaged 113.2 points in 2025-26, which was 22 points more than Division I leader Alabama.

Since surpassing Grinnell atop the Division III points chart in 2015-16, Greenville has not relinquished the scoring crown. 

“I keep asking Dr. Barber when he’s going to retire so that we can lead the country in scoring again,” Arseneault Jr. said. “Or I’m going to have to figure out a way for us to increase our tempo and pace and perhaps be more liberal with our shot selection.”

Excluding the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, when Greenville played several non-Division III opponents, the Panthers are 145-121 since adopting the System and taking the scoring belt. That winning record has come with a distinct feast-or-famine pattern that has brought both brutal seasons and conference titles.

“In my opinion, there’s so much emphasis, almost too much emphasis, on winning,” Barber said. “We’ve reduced giving it your best shot and challenging yourself. I go to these high school games and both teams are playing zone, and the score is 32 to 31, and we’re in the fourth quarter, I’m going, ‘these poor kids don’t even want pizza. after the game.’ They haven’t even worked hard because the coaches are afraid to lose.” 

System ball isn’t for everyone 

Around Greenville, a town of 7,000 that sits 50 miles east of St. Louis, Barber is known as the mayor. It’s not just because he has been Greenville’s basketball coach for over a quarter-century. He’s actually the town’s mayor.

He’s also a kinesiology professor at Greenville University, which boasts an enrollment of around 1,100. Within the academic tentacles of his brain percolate thoughts on why the System is a worthy philosophy and not the cheap carnival trick that its detractors claim.

“My theory is that young people have a ton of energy,” Barber said. “They want to be pushed. They want to be challenged.”

You will be challenged in the System. Over the past two combined seasons, Greenville, Grinnell and Covenant have ranked first, second and third, respectively, in possessions per game at any level of NCAA-sanctioned basketball. All three far outpace their most high-octane Division I peers.

To make it work, they regularly employ 13-17 player rotations with line changes coming on nearly a minute-by-minute basis to fuel a never-ending marathon of full-court traps. Last season, Grinnell’s minutes leader logged just 17.8 minutes per game on a 22-4 team that reached the NCAA Tournament.

In addition to calling for a goal of 100+ shot attempts (a threshold rarely reached by anyone other than Greenville), relentless full-court defense and regular mass substitutions, System principles also include:

• a dogged “3-pointers or layups” offensive mantra
• offensive rebounds on 30%+ of misses
• creation of 30+ turnovers per game
• a shot margin of 25+

“It’s not for certain people,” Barber said. “It’s just not for them because you have to sub in and out so quickly. You have to be a real team player. It weeds out selfishness, it weeds out lack of hustle. You’re so exposed if you don’t do those things. If somebody ever comes out of the game and says ‘I’m not tired,’ I call that a weed in the garden, and I’m gonna stomp on that weed for about three days.”

Mathematical absurdities come along with the System. Grinnell’s Jack Taylor famously scored an NCAA-record 138 points in a win over Faith Baptist Bible College in 2012. But the statistical marvels also bring political complexities. Greenville once scored 200 points in a game. That got Barber accused of poor sportsmanship. The Panthers have also scored 160 points in a loss while running the System, and they once lost a game by 92 points. 

For better or worse, playing more possessions brings more volatility, which Barber views as one of the System’s positives.

“There needs to be more reward or risk taking,” he said. “I think the fans would like it. I know the kids would like it. Every team we play, the kids like to play us because somebody is going to score 40, and they like to play with this freedom. We are giving them that opportunity.” 

Division I complications

Adopting the System at any level without university-level authorization is ill-advised. What if a ball-knowing booster starts withholding checks when the coach employing a nutty looking 15-man rotation takes a 40-point loss?

“It’s hard for people to step out of their comfort zone, especially at a higher level where there’s more pressure to win and not put an embarrassing product on the floor,” Arseneault Jr. said.

Ugly defeats can happen when your goal is to speed up the game, which naturally gives a talented opponent ample opportunity to pour it on. 

Grinnell’s basketball identity has been tethered to the System for more than three decades. Conversely, Barber picked it up mid-tenure at Greenville. That’s what Brown is now doing at Covenant — but only after heeding warnings from peers like Barber and Cal Poly’s Mike DeGeorge about the risks. 

“You have to have serious administrative support,” said DeGeorge, who employed the System at Division III Rhodes College before climbing to the Division I ranks. 

For programs that have been struggling, there is evidence that a jolt of System-style pace can bring revival.

After inheriting a 4-28 program at Cal Poly, DeGeorge has guided the Mustangs to 30 victories over the past two seasons, including road wins over Stanford and Utah, with a scheme that incorporates System philosophies. He’s won more Big West games in two years than Cal Poly had in its previous seven seasons combined.

Even still, he’s stopped well short of playing at the pace maintained by the System’s Division III standard bearers.

“Anytime you’re doing something that extreme, that’s different from the rest of the world, you’re putting yourself at risk because if it doesn’t go well, they’re just going to blame the style you chose,” DeGeorge said. “It’s a pretty risky strategy in Division I, where there’s not a lot of job security. Just plain and simple.”

System overload

The teams with the fastest pace in NCAA basketball since 2024-25 and how they compare to fastest Division I teams. 

Division III fastest teams

Division I fastest teams

Source: Synergy

DeGeorge is still employing a deep rotation and playing fast offensively at Cal Poly, ranking first in adjusted tempo at KenPom this past season. But he’s not using a full-court press or hockey-style substitution patterns. 

In addition to the potential perils that come with heightened fan and media scrutiny in Division I, there are questions about whether a hardcore version of the System would be viable on the court in Division I. Paul Westhead’s high-octane and highly successful Loyola Marymount teams of the late 1980s are often viewed as a forerunner to the System. But no Division I team has averaged 85+ shots in a game since LMU did in 1989-90, per Sports Reference.

DeGeorge apprenticed under System pioneer David Arseneault Sr. as a Grinnell assistant in 1999-2000 and was a head coach at multiple levels on his path to Cal Poly. The journey has revealed some insights.

“I don’t know if it’s going to have broad-based appeal because of the defensive component,” DeGeorge said. “To me, you lack some analytical ability to be successful long-term doing it that way.”

Then, there’s the recruiting piece. Even at the Division III level, Barber knows he’s lost prospects at Greenville who scoffed at the notion of maxing out at 20 minutes per game.

What’s that DI booster going to say — or what check might he choose not to write — if the last player he stroked a big check to land only plays 19 minutes per game?

Furthermore, running the System at the Division I level would have been particularly challenging from a sheer numbers standpoint before the scholarship limit increased from 13 to 15 with the finalization of the House settlement last year. Walk-ons would have been required to carry significant weight in a team’s third wave for any DI program going all-in on System principles.

Why the System can work in Division III

In a 400+ team Division III landscape made up of eclectic institutions trying to maintain enrollment levels and differentiate themselves, Grinnell and Greenville have proven the System can work over the long run, leading others, like Covenant, to give it a shot.

Forget NIL. Division III doesn’t even have athletic scholarships. Yet, athletes comprise significant percentages of many DIII student bodies. Those who run the System can realistically provide a pathway to playing time for every player on a 20-man roster, keeping players who might be buried on the bench at other schools engaged — and enrolled — for multiple years.

“We’re able to have great team chemistry in large part because we are playing a lot of guys,” Arsenault said.

Grinnell, Greenville and Covenant are each somewhat isolated geographically. They are rooted in either elite academic standards, a deep affiliation with a Christian denomination or both. Running the System meshes with their already distinct cultures and gives them an on-court identity that can transcend fluctuating talent levels.

“Covenant is so unique,” Brown said. “I love that our style of play mirrors that. If we’re going to be a different college than anyone else in the country, then why are we trying to do the same thing everyone else is doing from a basketball standpoint?”

Ideological convention

Arseneault spent two seasons coaching the Reno Bighhorns of the G League, leading the team to a 34-16 mark in 2015-16 before returning to Grinnell to succeed his father as head coach. At the time, he was still in his late 20s and had shown he could get winning results at the professional level using a modified version of the System. 

Even now, he’s young by industry standards and has proven himself to be a consistent winner over the past decade. But the blind ambition that so commonly overtakes many in his profession has never taken root. Arseneault and his wife are raising three kids five blocks from campus and building upon on the family’s pioneering legacy.

“I just love everything about Grinnell,” he said. “We get to have fun. We get to test the limits of the game. I get guys that want to come in and and play and compete really for the love of the sport. I don’t have any interest in going anywhere.”

On his desk, Arseneault keeps a box. When an unorthodox basketball idea creeps into his mind, he’ll jot it down on a scrap of paper and drop it in. 

“Some of those never see the light of day because they might be too crazy,” he said.

Occasionally, he’ll look through the ideas to see if any seem worth trying. Before Grinnell heads to Greenville for its season-opening showdowns with two System teams, Arseneault is going to open the box.

If there were ever a time to add some wrinkles to the System, the “Fastest Weekend in Basketball” would be it.

Barber and Brown are two of the only people who won’t call him crazy, and the rest of college basketball will be fast asleep, oblivious as ever to the anarchy of college basketball’s hidden fast lane.

India captain Shubman Gill on Wednesday reclaimed the No. 1 spot in ICC rankings for batters in ODI cricket while young batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi moved up a whopping 230 places to 48th in T20Is after his recent exploits against Zimbabwe. Gill has replaced New Zealand batting mainstay Daryl Mitchell at the top spot in the ODI chart. Mitchell had held the top spot since January this year. “There was some change at the top of the latest ODI rankings following the completion of the recent series between the West Indies and New Zealand as the absence of Black Caps’ right-hander Daryl Mitchell saw Shubman Gill move back to become the No.1 ranked batter in 50-over cricket,” the ICC said.

“Mitchell had held the top billing since January this year,” it added.

Sooryavanshi, who smacked two half-centuries in the recently-concluded India’s tour of Zimbabwe for three T20Is, scored 151 runs at 50.33 in his side’s 3-0 victory.

The 15-year-old batter rose as many as 230 spots to reach 48th in the list of T20I batters, which is led by compatriot Ishan Kishan with 910 rating points.

Kishan had recorded the third highest batting rating of all time behind Abhishek Sharma (931) and Dawid Malan (919) when he reached 916 points after the end of the second T20I against Zimbabwe.

Despite losing some rating points, Kishan maintains a healthy lead over the second-ranked Sahibzada Farhan (848).

“Sooryavanshi’s rating of 536 points is well adrift of his more experienced teammates, but Kishan can now boast of having a better career batter rating than more accomplished Indian players like Suryakumar Yadav (912) and Virat Kohli (909),” the ICC said.

Meanwhile, Tilak Varma moved up two positions to reach sixth while T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer jumped seven places to 24th.

Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi gained 31 positions to move to 41st in the list of T20I bowlers but Varun Chakravarthy, who missed the Zimbabwe tour due to an injury, dropped three places but remained in the top 10 rankings.

Zimbabwe’s Ryan Burl rose six positions to reach 85th in rankings for batters while Blessing Muzarabani jumped 10 spots to reach 26th among bowlers.

West Indies’ Justin Greaves was also rewarded for his impressive showing against Pakistan in the first Test. Greaves recorded five consecutive wicket-maidens in Tarouba as the West Indies beat Pakistan by 90 runs to take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the series.

Greaves rose 21 spots to move to the 48th position among Test bowlers, and ninth in the list of all-rounders in the longest format.

Jayden Seales moved up to the 24th position while Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas, who also recorded a five-for, jumped to the 17th spot.

Babar Azam reached 15th after his unbeaten fifty in the second innings. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

Spain’s Royal Family Welcomes World Cup Champions To Zarzuela Palace