Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh to register their first overseas in seven years. England won their first overseas match since 2016. In a sense, both Zimbabwe and England were in similar positions. Bangladesh started as favourites in the match. Sri Lanka started as favourites considering the way they won against South Africa. Then there was the question of how well the spinners would be able to bowl in Sri Lanka and how the English batsmen would play spin in spin friendly conditions. Finally with the retirement of Alastair Cook

As of the end of the first test between England and Sri Lanka, the rankings are below:

I have included Zimbabwe in the list as they will be playing one more Test against Bangladesh. Afghanistan and Ireland still do not appear because they have played only one test so far. Irrespective of the result of that match I expect Bangladesh or Zimbabwe if not both to overtake Australia and South Africa. There is the possibility that Sri Lanka will fall below Pakistan mainly due to the retirement of Herath. There is the possibility of the ranking of England changing too but that is less likely.

The top players are below.

Batsmen

There is the possibility of the ranking of the top four batsmen changing. It will be difficult to overtake Virat Kohli but not impossible.

Bowlers

Dilruwan Perera and Moeen Ali jumped quite a few places because of their performance in this test.

Total Scores

As stated in my last update; Ben Stokes has made the list. Sam Curran nearly made the list.

Test XI

Despite the changes to the points of quite a few of the top players, there has not been any change to the Test XI.