Jasprit Bumrah has jumped to the top of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings for the first time in his career on the back of a sensational performance in India’s second Test against England. Bumrah dislodged teammate Ravichandran Ashwin from the position and in the process, has become the first Indian fast bowler to top the ICC Test rankings.
Bumrah is overall the fourth different player from India to top the bowling charts, with Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Bishan Singh Bedi, the only players from the country to have done so previously. The 30-year-old previous highest position was third, which he has taken on multiple occassions.
Bumrah was ranked fourth before the start of the second Test and has jumped three places to take the top spot. Ashwin, who has been No.1 since March last year, drops two places to third on the updated rankings for Test bowlers, with South Africa pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada maintaining his place in second despite sitting out the Proteas’ Test series in New Zealand.
Bumrah recorded tremendous match figures of 9/91 during his side’s series-equaling 106-run victory over England in the second Test in Visakhapatnam. The nine-wicket haul saw Bumrah win Player of the Match ahead of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored a double century in India’s first innings.
Bumrah has arguably been India’s best bowler throughout the series despite the conditions in the country often being skewed in favour of spin bowlers. In the second Test in particular, Bumrah returned figures of 6/45 in England’s first innings and 3/46 in the second. The delivery to dismiss Ollie Pope in the first innings, a vicious reverse swinging yorker that smashed into the base of middle and leg stump, ended up being hailed across the cricket world.
This was only the sixth time that Bumrah has played a Test match in India, having been either rested or injured most times the country have hosted a red-ball series since he made his debut in 2018. And yet, he has picked a whopping 29 wickets in Tests he has played at home with at a stunning average of 13.06. Bumrah overall has 155 Test wickets in 34 matches at an average of 20.19.
Meanwhile, Ashwin picked three wickets in the second innings but none in the first, which led to him going down to fourth. He sits on 499 Test wickets and is one away from becoming just the second Indian after Anil Kumble to take 500 wickets in the format.
Jaiswal rises 7 places
Yashasvi Jaiswal almost single handedly took India close to 400 in their first innings by scoring 209 off 290 balls. The next best score in the innings was 34 from Shubman Gill and India were all out for 396 despite more than 200 of those runs coming from Jaiswal alone. The 22-year-old has risen 37 places to 29th on the Test rankings for batters. England’s Joe Root has dropped to third, with Australia’s Steve Smith replacing him at second. Root’s teammate Zak Crawley improved eight spots to 22nd following two innings in the 70s in the second Test.
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