It comes after the left-arm spinner grabbed his eighth 10-wicket match haul and helped his country win the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Colombo by four wickets yesterday.

Herath has leapfrogged India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and is now within 32 points of leader Ravindra Jadeja, also of India.

The 39-year-old, who is the most successful left-arm spinner in Tests with a tally of 384 wickets in 81 matches, finished with a match haul of 11 for 249 in Colombo to move up the list.

England’s James Anderson and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood are the highest-ranked pace bowlers in joint-fourth position.

Herath was not the only left-arm spinner to gain in the rankings with South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj moving up 12 places to 26th position.

Maharaj grabbed six wickets as his country levelled the ongoing four-match Test series with England at 1-1 by claiming a 340-run win at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.  

He now tallies 543 points, the fourth highest by a South African spinner since the nation’s return to Test cricket in 1992.

Paul Harris, Paul Adams and Nicky Boje are the only South African spinners with higher point tallies in this period, amassing 705, 588 and 545 respectively.

Zimbabwe captain and leg-spinner Graeme Cremer’s nine wickets in Colombo have helped him gain 20 places to a career-best 53rd spot, while Anderson’s seven wickets at Trent Bridge have pushed him up one place from fifth position.

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, South Africa’s Hashim Amla is back in the top 10 having gained six places to reach seventh with scores of 78 and 87 against England.

Zimbabwe batsmen Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza have attained career-best positions after registering centuries against Sri Lanka.

Ervine is up 20 places to 40th, while Raza has risen 28 places to 48th.

Sri Lanka’s Asela Gunaratne has gained 19 positions to reach a career-high rank of 79th after innings of 45 and 80 not out against Zimbabwe.

Gunaratne,  who was given the player-of-the-match award, enabled a successful chase after his country had been set a huge target of 388 runs for victory by their opponents.

South Africa all-rounder Vernon Philander has made a charge back towards the number one spot for all-rounders with a player-of-the-match performance against England.

Philander, who scored 54 and 42 and grabbed five wickets at Trent Bridge, has gained two places and reached fifth position in a list headed by Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan.