India achieve a rare top two finish on the ICC Test Bowlers Rankings as Ashwin and Jadeja lead the rankings of the best test bowlers. This feat was conquered after Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s maiden 10-wicket match haul against England in Chennai propelled him to second position behind teammate and India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. This match winning performance has earned Jadeja a whopping 66 points and brought him within eight points of Ashwin.
If we go by statistics, this is just the second time the top two spots in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers have been occupied by Indian players, with the pair emulating left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi and leg-spinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, who were ranked one and two in 1974.
In the recently concluded test series against touring England, Jadeja grabbed 10-154 in the final Test and finished with 26 wickets in the five-match series while Ashwin ended with 28 wickets as India completed a 4-0 series victory, culminating with an innings and 75 runs win in Chennai.
The left-arm spinner, who leapfrogged Josh Hazlewood, James Anderson, Dale Steyn and Rangana Herth in the test bowlers rankings, has reached a career-best third rank in the list of all-rounders, also led by Ashwin.
The mainstay of Australian Bowling attack, Mitchell Starc is another one to rise in the latest rankings as he has moved up two slots to a career-best sixth position after taking seven wickets in the first Test against Pakistan in Brisbane, which his team won by 39 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
In the Test Bowlers rankings, others who went up the ladder in the latest ranking are Ishant Sharma (up two places to 23rd rank), Wahab Riaz (up two places to a career-best 24th rank) and Australia’s Jackson Bird (up five places to 48th).
In the rankings for the test batsmen, the top gainers include India’s Lokesh Rahul and Karun Nair. The Indian Opener, Rahul’s knock of 199 has helped him gain 29 slots to reach a career-best 51st position while Nair’s unbeaten 303 in only his third Test innings up him 122 places to 55th position.
In other changes in the Test Batsmen rankings, Younus Khan has moved up one place to eighth, Azhar Ali has gained one slot to reach 16th, while Asad Shafiq has moved up five places to 20th after scoring two and 137 in Brisbane and Usman Khawaja has reached a career-best 18th rank after knocks of four and 74.