ICC Rankings: Ashwin regains no. 1 Test bowler spot from James Anderson after whirlwind Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli rises up as well

After his Player of the Series performance in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, spinner

SportsTak

• Wed • 15 Mar 2023

After his Player of the Series performance in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has regained the top spot among bowlers in the latest ICC Rankings which were released on Wednesday.

He picked up six wickets in the final Test, taking his total tally to 25 and making him the leading wicket-taker in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In doing so, Ashwin pulled 10 rating points ahead of veteran England seamer James Anderson.

Among the other Indian bowlers, left-arm spinner Axar Patel climbed six places to 28. He also rose to the fourth spot in the all-rounder's list which is led by Ashwin and Jadeja. This comes after the batter hit half-centuries in three of the four matches that India played against Australia.

The injured pacer Jasprit Bumrah fell further down the pecking order, dropping to number seven while recovering from a recurring back injury.

Virat Kohli returns in style
Meanwhile, star batter Virat Kohli moved seven places to 13th position after his Player of the Match performance against Australia in the fourth Test. Even Shubman Gill, who smashed his second Test century, jump 17 places to 46th. The injured Rishabh Pant (9th) and skipper Rohit Sharma (10th) are the Indian batters in the top 10.

Australia opener Usman Khawaja, who scored 180 in the drawn fourth Test in Ahmedabad, bagged a career-best 815 rating points
to move him to seventh. New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell's knocks of 102 and 81 in his country's victory over Sri Lanka in Christchurch helped him reach a career-best eighth position as he touches the 800-point mark for the first time.

Temba Bavuma's match-winning 172 for South Africa in the second Test also lifted him 14 slots to a career-best 15th. And Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews is another one to move up the batting rankings, his scores of 47 and 115 taking him from 19th to 17th position.