James Anderson overtakes Ravindra Jadeja to claim top spot in ICC Test bowler rankings

New Delhi: England pace bowler James Anderson grabbed the top spot in the ICC Test Player Rankings after his superb effort in the third and final Test at Lord’s helped England win by nine wickets to seal a 2-1 series victory over the Windies.

BREAKING: @jimmy9 moves to No.1 in the @MRFWorldwide ICC Test Bowling Rankings!

More: https://t.co/lwkkHud3EV pic.twitter.com/akLObd8aYz — ICC (@ICC) September 10, 2017

The 35-year-old’s career-best figures of seven for 42 in an innings and a match haul of nine wickets see him overtake India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who he now leads by 12 points. The third and fourth places are also taken by spinners with India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath taking those positions.

Anderson, who was the top-ranked bowler in August 2016, has reclaimed the spot to become the oldest bowler to be number-one ranked since Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralidaran in July 2009 and the oldest pace bowler to be at the top since Australia’s Glenn McGrath in January 2006.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has been another major gainer in the rankings after his player of the match performance. His knock of 60 in the first innings has lifted him four places to a career-best 20th position among batsmen while his first-innings haul of six for 22 sees him gain two places to reach 21st position among bowlers. These efforts also see him overtake team-mate Moeen Ali to take fourth place among all-rounders.

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the Test Team Rankings following the series with England and the Windies retaining their pre-series 105 and 75 points, respectively.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings (as on 10 September 2017, after the England v Windies series)

Rank    Team              Points

  1        India                125

  2        South Africa   110

  3        England           105

  4        New Zealand     97

  5        Australia           97

  6        Pakistan            93

  7        Sri Lanka          90

  8        West Indies       75

  9        Bangladesh       74

10        Zimbabwe         00

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 10 September, after the third and final Test between England and the Windies at Lord’s):

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank     Player          Team      Pts       

   1      Steve Smith      Aus      936      

   2      Joe Root           Eng      889     

   3      K. Williamson  NZ       880      

   4      C. Pujara           Ind       876      

   5      David Warner    Aus      807      

   6      Virat Kohli         Ind       806     

   7      Azhar Ali           Pak      769      

   8      Hashim Amla    SA       764      

   9      Lokesh Rahul    Ind       761

  10     A. Rahane         Ind       760       

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank    Player          Team      Pts       

   1       J. Anderson      Eng      896

   2       R. Jadeja          Ind       884     

   3       R. Ashwin         Ind       852       

   4       R. Herath          SL        809      

   5       J. Hazlewood    Aus      794      

   6        K. Rabada         SA      785  

   7        Dale Steyn        SA       763      

   8        Nathan Lyon     Aus      752 

   9        V. Philander      SA        751      

  10      Neil Wagner      NZ        745    

All-rounders (top five) 

Rank    Player          Team      Pts       

   1        S. Al Hasan     Ban      456      

   2        R. Jadeja          Ind       430    

   3        R. Ashwin       Ind       422      

   4        Ben Stokes      Eng      396

   5        Moeen Ali       Eng      378