ICC rankings – Blistering run-scoring form takes Joe Root up to second among Test batters – Eng vs Ind – WTC | Cricket

August 18, 2021 karavalitimes

A sequence of 64, 109, 180* and 33, that’s 386 runs in four innings across two Tests against India, has pushed Joe Root up from No. 5 to No. 2, only behind Kane Williamson and that too by just eight rating points, in the Test rankings for batters. Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Virat Kohli make up the rest of the top five.

England are 1-0 down after two Tests in the five-match series, and while Root has been the standout batter, across teams, so far, England have had few other individual performances of note. The other has been James Anderson, who moved past Anil Kumble to third spot behind Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets) and Shane Warne (708) in the list of highest wicket-takers in Test history during the first Test. In the second, he returned 5 for 62 in the first India innings, and that pushed him up one spot in the bowlers’ table to No. 6. Above him are Pat Cummins, R Ashwin, Tim Southee, Josh Hazlewood and Neil Wagner.

In the second England vs India Test at Lord’s, which the visitors won by 151 runs, KL Rahul was named the player of the match for his first-innings 129. That got him up 19 spots to 37th in the batters’ rankings.

Mark Wood (five wickets in the Test) and Mohammed Siraj (eight wickets) were among the best strike forces on view, and their returns helped them go up five and 18 spots respectively, placing them at 37th and 38th. Wood, unfortunately, hurt his right shoulder during the Lord’s Test and is a doubt for the third Test, at Headingley from August 25, but Siraj would hope to build on his recent gains and keep moving up.

If the Lord’s Test was a thrilling one, the first West Indies vs Pakistan Test, at Sabina Park, was perhaps even more of a cliffhanger, with West Indies winning by one wicket.

Babar Azam‘s 30 and 55 took him up two spots to sixth among batters, and a number of West Indians made significant gains. Jason Holder, after returning 3 for 26 and 1 for 36 and scoring 58 and 16 with the bat, broke into the top ten of the bowling rankings, gaining two positions to No. 9, and also gained five spots in the batting rankings, rising to 43. Player-of-the-match Jayden Seales was another big mover, shooting up 39 places to the 58th spot in the bowling charts after his eight wickets in the match. Shaheen Afridi, too, gained four spots to move up to No. 18.

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