England's James Anderson vaults to career-best No.1 Test ranking

Dubai, May 31। England’s James Anderson has topped the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers for the first time in his career after bowling his side to a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test in Chester-le-Street on

By Saurabh Sharma
May 31, 2016 • 03:37 PM

James Anderson becomes number-one ranked Test bowler ()

Dubai, May 31। England’s James Anderson has topped the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers for the first time in his career after bowling his side to a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test in Chester-le-Street on Monday.

Anderson took three for 36 and five for 58, and, in doing so, has leapfrogged team-mate Stuart Broad and India’s Ravichandran Ashwin into the coveted number-one position. He now leads Broad by 15 points and Ashwin by 13 points.

For his efforts that also fetched him the man of the match award, Anderson has earned 30 points. This means in the two Tests against Sri Lanka, the 33-year-old Lancastrian has collected 79 points and has gained four spots in the rankings.

Anderson is the fourth England bowler to top the bowlers’ table since Ian Botham first achieved this feat in 1980. Steve Harmison stormed up the charts in 2004, while Broad vaulted to the number-one position earlier this year following the Johannesburg Test against South Africa.

Broad, who took five wickets in the Test, has slipped behind Ashwin to third place after conceding three points.

Other bowlers to improve their rankings post the Chester-le-Street Test are Nuwan Pradeep (43rd, up by five places), Milinda Siriwardana (50th, up by 13 places) and Chris Woakes (73rd, up by 16 places).

In the batting table, England’s Moeen Ali has achieved a career-best ranking.

The left-handed batsman scored 155 not out, his career-best score in 25 Tests, which helped England to declare its first innings at 498 for nine. For this achievement, Ali has earned 82 points that has lifted him 12 places to a career-high 35th position in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen.

Opener Alex Hales has also continued to head in the right direction. After scoring 83 and 11, the 27-year-old batsman has moved up nine places to 70th. In the past two Tests, Hales has gained 47 places and looks strong to gain further spots as he is still in the qualification period. A batsman qualifies for a full rating after he has played 40 Test innings, while Hales has so far batted in only 11 Test innings.

Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal, who scored 126 in the second innings, has moved up one place to 19th, while Nick Compton is now in 67thspot after rising one place.

Alastair Cook, who became the first England batsman to complete 10,000 Test runs while scoring 47 not out in the second innings, has retained his 15th position.

Australia captain Steve Smith is the number-one ranked Test batsman, followed by Joe Root of England and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson.

In the all-rounders’ list, Ali has gained one place and is now sixth, just one point behind team-mate Ben Stokes. Ashwin is the number-one ranked all-rounder.

The Test player rankings will now be updated after the Lord’s Test.

ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 31 May, after Chester-le-Street Test)

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating

1 ( - ) Steve Smith Aus 925 60.18 936 v Eng at Lord's 2015

2 ( - ) Joe Root Eng 878 54.46 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

3 ( - ) Kane Williamson NZ 868 49.23 893 v Aus at Perth 2015

4 ( - ) Hashim Amla SA 860 51.45 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

5 ( - ) Younus Khan Pak 826 53.94 880 v SL at Lahore 2009

6 ( - ) AB de Villiers SA 818 50.46 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

7 ( - ) Adam Voges Aus 811*! 95.50 811 v NZ at Christchurch 2016

8 ( - ) David Warner Aus 800 50.06 880 v NZ at Perth 2015