Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar gains career best 22nd rank in ICC Test Rankings
Dubai, January 10: Top Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar jumped eight places in the latest MRF Tyres ICC Rankings for Test bowlers that were released on Tuesday and achieved his career-best 22nd rank. Unfortunately, skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara slipped to 3rd and 5th place respectively.
Notably, India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar as vaulted eight places to 22nd following figures of four for 87 and two for 33. Kumar had taken six wickets across two South African innings in the first Test, which India lost by 72 runs. In the rankings for the Test batsmen, Australia's Steve Smith remained on 947 points in the first position, but there was some movement just behind him.
India skipper Virat Kohli lost the second position to his England counterpart Joe Root and was placed third ahead of Kane Williamson, who was ranked third before. Root earned 26 points from the Sydney Test, in which he was dismissed once while scoring 141 runs, but Kohli dropped 13 points after his contributions of five and 28 at Newlands.
Pujara's scores of 26 and four resulted in his total falling by 25 points. South Africa's Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar slipped three places apiece to finish in 10th and 16th positions respectively, but AB de Villiers jumped five places to 13th with a slot in the top-10 firmly within his sights.
South Africa opener Aiden Markram, who was the player of the tournament in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in 2014, and India all-rounder Hardik Pandya were the other big movers from the Newlands Test. Markram moved up six places to 48th, while Pandya was ranked 49th after rocketing 24 places.
Meanwhile, India's Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have also lost ground. Vijay was 30th after dropping five places, Dhawan slipped three places to 33rd, while Sharma ended up 44th after falling three places.
India though continued to be the top-ranked Test team with 124 points followed by South Africa (111), Australia (104), New Zealand (100) and England (99).
