Bumrah Retains Number One Test Bowler Spot, Jaiswal Moves to Number 2 in ICC Test Rankings

Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah soared to the top of the ICC Men's Test Player Rankings among bowlers after getting eight wickets,

Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah soared to the top of the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings among bowlers after getting eight wickets, including a first innings five-wicket haul during a 295-run win against Australia at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

During the match, Bumrah also claimed the ‘Player of the Match’ honours, and the in-form right-armer also climbed two spots ahead of South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada and Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood to reclaim his mantle as the top-ranked bowler in Test cricket.

Bumrah first rose to the top in February this year on the back of a nine-wicket haul against England and briefly returned to the premier position in October following some decent efforts against Bangladesh, only to be overtaken by Rabada in recent weeks.

India teammate Mohammed Siraj also makes some ground, with the fiery right-armer improving three places to 25th on the list for Test bowlers following his five scalps against the Aussies in Perth, as per an ICC press release.

Outside the top 10, there is a trio of West Indies pacers on the rise, with Jayden Seales (up three spots to 11th), Kemar Roach (up four places to 17th) and Alzarri Joseph (up three rungs to 29th) all rewarded for their strong efforts in the first Test of their series against Bangladesh in Antigua.

The three fast bowlers combined for 14 wickets during the West Indies victory, while Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed climbed 16 places to move up to 51st following his six-wicket haul in the second innings of the same match.

England veteran Joe Root still holds a healthy lead at the top of the Test batter rankings, but he has a new challenger, with India youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal now his closest rival following his excellent century in the second innings against Australia.

Jaiswal smashed a scintillating 161 to help swing the match to India’s favour and gained two places to move to second on the rankings for Test batters as a result, while also gaining a new career-best rating of 825, 78 rating points behind Root.

Australia left-hander Travis Head improves three places to move to 10th following his innings of 89 in Perth, while Jaiswal’s more senior teammate Virat Kohli is back on the rise as he improves nine spots to 13th following his 30th Test century.

India duo Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin remain in the top two rankings for Test all-rounders despite neither featuring against Australia in that opening Test, with Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan the big eye-catcher as he improves three places to equal third following solid contributions with bat and ball against the West Indies.

There are also some changes on the latest ODI rankings following the first two matches of Zimbabwe’s home series against Pakistan, with veteran Sean Williams re-entering the batter rankings at 43 after scores of 23 and 31 in his first two 50-over matches in more than a year.

Pakistan hard-hitter Saim Ayub enters the top 100 of the ODI batter rankings at 90th following his quickfire century in the second match of the series against Zimbabwe, while teammate Shaheen Afridi loses his spot as the number one ranked ODI bowler to Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan after missing the two matches in Bulawayo. (ANI)

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