India pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been rewarded for his exceptional show in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam. He has become the first ever Indian pacer to be crowned No.1 in the latest ICC rankings in Tests. Bumrah picked up nine wickets in the Test match including a six-wicket haul in the first innings with his masterful reverse swing bowling.
He leapfrogged the likes of Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, and Ravichandran Ashwin to climb to the top spot in the rankings. Bumrah now has 881 rating points with only Ravichandran Ashwin (904) and Ravindra Jadeja (899) attaining more points than him.
The previous highest ranking in Tests for Bumrah was no.3, similar to Zaheer Khan’s highest-ever ranking in October-November 2010. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah is also only the second Indian player to achieve the top ranking across all the formats in the sport.
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Virat Kohli was the first Indian player to achieve the unique distinction while Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Shakib Al Hasan are the other cricketers to have become No.1 in ICC rankings across all formats in their career.
Jasprit Bumrah becomes No.1 Test bowler
Bumrah’s closest competitor right now in the rankings is Kagiso Rabada with 851 rating points while India’s Ashwin has 841 points to show for his efforts and is at number three. The only other Indian bowler in the top 10 is Axar Patel, in the fifth position.
Coming back to Bumrah, he is currently the top wicket-taker of the ongoing Test series between India and England. He has picked up wickets so far in the series – six in Hyderabad and nine in Visakhapatnam – and will continue to play an important role for the hosts in the series. However, India will have to be careful and manage his workload given the fact that the T20 World Cup in June and he will play at least 14 matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
As far as rankings of other Indian players are concerned, Yashasvi Jaiswal gained the most climbing a massive 37 places up to 29th following a sensational show in Visakhapatnam. He smashed his maiden double-century in the format and certainly has been rewarded for the same.
Meanwhile, former New Zealand Test skipper Kane Williamson continues to be on top of the Test rankings following his twin centuries against South Africa. Among other rankings, Ravindra Jadeja is at the top of the all-rounders list in Tests with 416 rating points. Axar Patel has trumped Joe Root to storm into the top five of the rankings while England captain Ben Stokes is still in fourth position in this aspect.
Interestingly, Stokes hasn’t bowled at all in this series due to issues with his knee but is still among the top all-rounders in the rankings. Ravi Ashwin continues to stay in second place and Bangladesh veteran Shakib Al Hasan is next with 326 and 320 rating points to show for their efforts respectively.
