India’s star quick Jasprit Bumrah’s unrelenting display in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series yielded him nine wickets in the Boxing Day Test against Australia, and helped him consolidate his lead as the No. 1 Test bowler in the recent rankings update.
With rating points of 907, Bumrah has now gone past Ashwin’s 904 rating points, achieved in December 2016, and makes him the highest-ever ranked Indian Test bowler in ICC rankings history. 907 points places the pacer as joint-17th in the all-time list – with Derek Underwood of England.
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Among the batters, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s gritty knocks at the MCG helped him rise a place up to a career-best fourth place, while Nitish Kumar Reddy’s maiden Test century in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test, vaulted him 20 places to 53.
Among others to gain in the latest batting rankings are Australia’s former skipper Steve Smith moving three places up to seventh after his brilliant 140 at the MCG, and Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel rose three places up to a career-best sixth place. Aiden Markram’s resilient innings of 89 and 37 propelled him back into the world’s top 20 batters, as South Africa secured their spot in the ICC Test Championship final with a victory over Pakistan.
On the other hand, free-flowing run-scoring in Bulawayo saw as many as six hundreds being scored in the Zimbabwe-Afghanistan Boxing Day Test, and significant batting rankings gains for Rahmat Shah (up 21 places to 52), and Hashmatullah Shahidi (up 25 places to equal 57) who surpassed the highest-ever Test scores for Afghanistan with their double hundreds.
The Test bowling rankings also witnessed positive movement for Australia skipper Pat Cummins, who jumped 15 rating points due to his six scalps in the MCG Test, and goes up by a place to sit at No. 3 in the bowling rankings. Cummins also secures a third place in the Test all-rounder Rankings, on the back of the above bowling exploits and 90 crucial runs during Australia’s stellar win in Melbourne.
Another pacer to gain due to his Boxing Day exploits is Marco Jansen, who jumped up six places to sit at five in the bowling rankings for his seven wickets in the Proteas win over Pakistan in the Centurion Test. This is the first time Jansen went past 800 rating points.
