ICC Test Ranking: Ravichandran Ashwin became the king of bowling, achieved a special position
Dubai. India’s veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who bowled brilliantly in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia, has reached the top of the bowlers’ list in the latest ICC (International Cricket Council) rankings released on Wednesday. Off-spinner Ashwin took six wickets for 91 runs in the first innings on a pitch with difficult conditions for the bowlers. In this four-match series, he was the highest wicket-taker with 25 wickets.
This benefited him in the rankings and he surpassed England fast bowler James Anderson by 10 ratings points. In the rankings, his fellow left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (down from eighth to ninth) has lost one place, while Axar Patel has gained six places to reach 28th position. Akshar, who made impressive contributions with the bat in the series against Australia, has moved up two places to fourth in the all-rounders’ list.
Jadeja and Ashwin occupy the top two positions in this list. Pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who is out of the team due to injury, has slipped from sixth to seventh position. In the list of batsmen, injured Rishabh Pant (ninth) and Rohit Sharma (10th) are the only Indians in the top 10. Virat Kohli improved seven places to reach 13th position after his 186 against Australia in Ahmedabad. Apart from Man of the Match Kohli, opener Shubman Gill, who scored a century in this match, has moved up 17 places to reach 46th position.
Australia’s Usman Khawaja, who scored 180 in the first innings of the match, moved up to seventh in the rankings with a career-best 815 rating points. Daryl Mitchell, who scored 102 and 81 in the first Test against Sri Lanka, also reached a career-best 800 rating points. However, he could not improve the ranking and remained at the eighth position. South African captain Temba Bavuma has improved 14 places to reach 15th position after his match-winning knock of 172 against the West Indies.
