ICC Test Rankings: R Ashwin dethrones Jasprit Bumrah to reclaim no.1 spot; Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill make big leaps too

Ravichandran Ashwin completed 500 wickets and played his 100th Test in the recently concluded five-Test series against Ben Stokes-led England.

Arun Rawal

• Wed • 13 Mar 2024

R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah during Test series against England (Getty Images)

Highlights:

R Ashwin took a total of nine wickets in his 100th Test.

Jasprit Bumrah was rested for the Ranchi Test.

India's ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin reclaimed the no.1 spot in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) latest Test bowling rankings. In his 100th Test at the picturesque Dharamsala, Ashwin picked up nine wickets including a five-wicket haul in the second innings to help India win the series by 4-1 and rise to the top in the rankings.

Bumrah slips one place

Jasprit Bumrah lost one place and is now second on the rankings alongside Australia's Josh Hazlewood with 847 rating points each. South Africa's Kagiso Rabada slipped one place in the rankings as well.

Major shuffles in rankings

An injured Kyle Jamieson fell out of the top 10, making way for Pakistan's left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi. New Zealand's Matt Henry jumped six places to 12th. Bangladesh's left-arm pacer Taijul Islam jumped one spot to 13th whereas Mitchell Starc and Ollie Robinson slipped two places each.

Kuldeep’s meteoric rise

India's left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav who took 19 wickets in the four Tests against England made a giant leap of 15 places. He is now ranked 16th, just below Robinson.

Massive gains for Rohit

In the batting rankings, Kane Williamson holds the top spot followed by Joe Root. As Steve Smith slipped two places after a couple of failures, Babar Azam and Daryl Mitchell occupied the third spot with 768 rating points each. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma jumped five places to no.6 after a century in Dharamsala Test. Rohit's young opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal was rewarded for consistent performances as he rose two places to occupy the eighth spot.

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Kohli, Brook’s absence hurts their ranking

Virat Kohli and Harry Brook slipped one place each whereas Usman Khawaja went down five places to the 11th spot. Khawaja failed to score a half-century against New Zealand whereas Kohli and Brook missed the five-Test series.

The big climbers

India's top-order batter Shubman Gill scored a century in the Dharamsala Test as well. Gill jumped 11 places to 20th after a good run against England in home conditions. Australia's wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey jumped 12 places to the 38th spot after a match-winning unbeaten 98 against New Zealand.

Much shuffle isn’t expected in the Test rankings with Indian Premier League (IPL) just more than a week away followed by the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies.

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