Rahmat Shah made 173 in Sharjah, and he is the first Afghan in the top ten of any Test ranking
The ICC’s latest Test rankings have Afghanistan’s captain at No. 7, ahead of Shubman Gill, after his 173 against Zimbabwe.
Nov 11, 2026
Rahmat Shah batted 347 balls for his 173 against Zimbabwe in Sharjah, and the ICC’s rankings update on Wednesday has put him where no Afghan player has been before. Afghanistan’s captain is up six places to seventh among Test batters, on a career-best 735 rating points. Nobody from his country had made the top ten of any of the ICC’s Test lists until now, whether for batting, bowling or all-rounders.
He went past six batters to get there, among them India captain Shubman Gill, South Africa opener Aiden Markram and Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis.
Afghans are no strangers to the top of the white-ball lists, and Rashid Khan has been the No. 1 ODI bowler. Tests are harder. A side that plays so few of them rarely gives a batter the run of big scores a top-ten place needs.
Two hundreds in two Tests as captain
Rahmat has that run now. The 173 was his fifth Test hundred and his second of 2026. The first came in October, in his first Test as captain, when he made an unbeaten 105 against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi. His best is still the double hundred he made against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in December 2024. He is 33.
None of it won Afghanistan the Sharjah Test. Zimbabwe made 504, Afghanistan replied with 514, and Zimbabwe batted out the draw on 523 for 5. Two of Rahmat’s team-mates moved up on the back of hundreds of their own. Sediqullah Atal climbed 14 places to 81st after his 105, and Rahmanullah came in at joint-83rd after making 113 on Test debut.
It has been a good few weeks for Afghan cricket in the tables. Earlier this month they rose to sixth in the ODI team rankings, their highest ever, after going unbeaten through a tri-series with Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Brar into the ODI top 50
The same update has three Indian bowlers climbing after the first two ODIs in New Zealand. Gurnoor Brar, the leading wicket-taker in the series with seven, has gone from outside the top 100 to 48th. Axar Patel is up 23 places to 21st after his 2 for 28 in Wellington, and Arshdeep Singh is up 11 to joint-31st after his four wickets in the Auckland opener. India lead that series 2-0 after the third game in Hamilton was washed out.
Gill is still No. 1 among ODI batters, ahead of Daryl Mitchell, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Rahmat gets another go at Zimbabwe from Friday, 13 November, at the same ground in Sharjah. The first pitch gave the bowlers nothing for five days. If the second plays the same way, seventh might not be his ceiling for long.