James Anderson becomes new no.1 ranked Test bowler; R Ashwin jumps to second spot

Pat Cummins slipped to no.3 spot in Test bowling rankings.

Veteran England pacer James Anderson has become the no.1 ranked bowler in the latest update of the ICC Test players rankings on February 22, 2023. He ended the four-year of Australia captain Pat Cummins at the top, thanks to his seven-wicket haul against New Zealand in the 1^st Test at Bay Oval.

Anderson is now rated as the top bowler in Test cricket for the sixth time in his long international career, which began in 2003. Most recently, for five months in 2018, he became the best bowler. With a total of 682 Test wickets in 178 matches, the legendary fast bowler from England is presently third on the all-time list, behind only spinners Shane Warne (708) and Muttiah Muralitharan (800).

Since Australian great Clarrie Grimmett did it in 1936 at the ripe age of 40 years and 207 days, Anderson is the oldest bowler to hold the top spot. He became the no.1 ranked bowler in Tests for the first time in May 2016.

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Meanwhile, Pat Cummins has slipped to the third spot with 858 rating points and India spinner R Ashwin has moved above him to the second spot and is just two rating points behind James Anderson.

Ravindra Jadeja, who has already picked 17 wickets in 2 Tests and won the Player of the Match awards in both matches, moved to the 9^th spot in the Test bowling rankings while cementing his position at no.1 in Test all-rounder’s rankings.

Injured pacer Jasprit Bumrah is the other Indian bowler in top-10, as he occupies the fifth spot.

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Another Indian, Akshar Patel has also made quite an impression as well with 158 runs with the bat and has moved to the 5^th spot in the all-rounders’ rankings.

Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne continues to top the Test batters list, followed by Steve Smith and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.

England batters Ollie Pope (up six places to 23rd), Harry Brook (up 12 places to 31st), and Ben Duckett (up 13 places to 38th) have achieved career-best rankings, as have New Zealand’s Tom Blundell and Devon Conway.

(PTI inputs)