Picture : Twitter / ICC
All-rounder Ben Stokes’s stupendous effort in the third Test against Australia at Headingly has helped him reach career-best positions among batsmen and all-rounders in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings.
Stokes, who scored a match-winning 135 not out in the second innings to guide the team to an epic series-levelling one-wicket win and also took four important wickets, has advanced 13 slots to a career-best 13th place in the batting rankings. He had a previous best of 19th position in October 2017.
Stokes has also moved up two places to grab the second position among all-rounders for the first time in his career, having occupied third position in September 2017. He has gained a handsome 44 points after the Headingly effort and is now on 411 points, only 22 behind Jason Holder and with a good chance of overtaking the West Indies captain during the ongoing Ashes series.
Captain Joe Root (up two places to seventh) and Joe Denly (up 15 places to 90th) are other England batsmen to move up in the latest rankings update, which also takes into account the first Test between India and the West Indies in Antigua and the second of two Tests between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Colombo.
Fast bowler Jofra Archer is another one to make impressive gains. He has moved up to 43rd position after only his second Test, finishing with eight wickets in Headingly including a remarkable six for 45 in the first innings.
Australia’s, Pat Cummins remains comfortably at the top of the bowling list despite losing six points while his fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has moved from 15th to 12th place after finishing with nine wickets in the match. Batsman Marnus Labuschagne’s two half-centuries have lifted him 45 places to 37th.
India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who got scores of 81 and 102 in a player of the match effort, has moved from 21st to 11th position in the list for batsmen led by captain Virat Kohli and with another compatriot Cheteshwar Pujara occupying fourth position.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is in the top 10 for the first time after taking six wickets, including an astonishing five for seven in the second innings. His previous best was 15th position in January this year. Mohammad Shami (up two places to 19th) and Ishant Sharma (up four places to 21st) have also gained after the Antigua Test.
For the West Indies, Kemar Roach’s haul of five wickets has helped him move from 11th to eighth position among bowlers while Roston Chase has gone up from 45th to 38th. Holder has moved from 37th to 34th among batsmen.
Sri Lanka may have lost the second Test to New Zealand, but captain Dimuth Karunaratne has continued his good run, reaching a career-best sixth position after scores of 65 and 21, while Dhananjaya de Silva has gained 10 places to reach 46th position.
For the visiting side, player of the match Tom Latham has moved up five places to a career-best eighth position while batsman BJ Watling, all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, fast bowler Trent Boult and the spin pair of William Somerville and Ajaz Patel have all gained in the latest rankings update.
The 1-1 series draw meant that there was no change of positions in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings with New Zealand and Sri Lanka remaining in second and sixth positions, respectively.
