Mitchell Starc Dethrones Jasprit Bumrah to Become No. 1 Test Bowler
Mitchell Starc of Australia has risen to the top of the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings for the first time in his career, after to a 10-wicket haul in MacKay that helped his team win the second match of their ICC World Test Championship series against Bangladesh.
Mitchell Starc went six for 12 and four for 39 to lead the innings and 51-run triumph, surpassing Matt Henry and Jasprit Bumrah by 10 rating points.
Mitchell Starc, whose previous highest ranking was second after the Boxing Day Test last year, was voted Player of the Match and Player of the Series.
Bumrah’s most recent reign at number one lasted only two months, but he has spent a total of 697 days at the top, the most by an Indian bowler and the 14th-longest overall.
Another significant gainer is England seam bowler Ollie Robinson, who took five for 51 and three for 39 to claim the Player of the Match award in an innings-and-103-run victory against Pakistan in the first of three Tests in Leeds, moving him up 15 places to 11th among bowlers.
Josh Tongue, who also took eight wickets at Headingley, has moved up 16 places to 17th. Manav Suthar, India’s left-arm spinner, has advanced 28 places to a career-best 48th after taking 10 wickets in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, which India won by 165 runs. Sri Lanka bowlers Asitha Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya have risen five places to 15th and 16th, respectively.
Spinners Nathan Lyon of Australia (up two places to tenth) and Ali Usman of Pakistan (up 30 places to 67th), as well as fast bowlers Jofra Archer of England (up six places to joint-38th), M. Prasidh Krishna of India (up two places to 53rd), and Shoriful Islam of Bangladesh (up 17 places to 57th), have all made significant gains.
The ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings show Harry Brook has doubled his advantage at the top to 24 rating points above teammate Joe Root. Brook top-scored with 90 and Root produced 66 to maintain the top two positions, while India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant returns to the top ten for the first time in a year with scores of 39 and 66, rising six places to eighth.
Australia’s Cameron Green (up nine places to 21st), Sri Lanka’s Dhananjaya de Silva (up two places to 22nd) and Sonal Dinusha (up 49 places to 54th), Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique (up seven places to joint-27th), India’s K.L. Rahul (up five places to 30th), and Devdutt Padikkal (re-entered at 59th) are among those who have improved their batting rankings.
