India's ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has dethroned England's 40-year-old pacer James Anderson from the top of ICC Test Bowling Rankings. Ashwin claimed the top spot after taking six wickets in India’s six-wicket win in the second Test at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi last month.
Ashwin is just one point ahead of Anderson with 904 rating points. Anderson recently became the oldest bowler in 86 years to reach the summit. Anderson took three wickets in the first innings of the historic Wellington Test while he remained wicketless in the second.
The first time Ashwin became the no.1-ranked Test bowler was in 2015. Since then, he has been on the top several times. While the New Zealand vs England two-Test series has ended, Ashwin has a chance to extend his lead over other bowlers in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Without playing a single Test, injured Jasprit Bumrah and Pakistan's Shahid Afridi have moved up a spot to no.4 and no.5 respectively as Ollie Robinson slipped two places. Robinson picked up just one wicket in England’s one-run loss after enforcing follow on.
Jadeja moved one place as well after taking 10 wickets in previous Test including his career-best seven-fer in the second innings. Jadeja is now at eighth place with 763 rating points. He surpassed New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson who has been ruled out due of action due to back injury.
Former Indian skipper Joe Root made massive gains in batting and all-rounder rankings. In the Wellington Test, Root registered scores of 153 not out and 95. He climbed two places to no.3 spot on batter rankings. Root has moved up in all-rounder rankings as well. Root is now eighth-ranked all-rounder. He surpassed Australian captain Pat Cummins and West Indies' Kyle Mayers.
New Zealand's wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell is the latest entrant in the top 10. Blundell has jumped four places to no.7 after his 90-run knock while following on. Former Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson has moved two places to no.6 after 132-run match-winning knock. As a result, injured Rishabh Pant and Indian skipper Rohit Sharma have slipped two places to no.8 and no.9 respectively.
Harry Brook's meteoric rise in rankings continued after he smashed 184 against New Zealand. Despite an unfortunate diamond duck in the second innings, Brook leaped 15 places to no.16 in the rankings.
