Ishant, Bhuvi rise up rankings, but Amla drops

India's 95 runs win against England at Lord's on Monday, only their second at the home of cricket in 82 years, saw their young players make noticeable improvements on the ICC Test Player Rankings.

India's 95 runs win against England at Lord's on Monday, only their second at the home of cricket in 82 years, saw their young players make noticeable improvements on the ICC Test Player Rankings.

India lead the five-Test series with the third Test to start in Southampton on 27 July. Players making an upward movement following the historic win included man of the match Ishant Sharma, fellow fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, opener Murali Vijay and middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane.

In the rankings for Test Bowlers, Ishant Sharma returned to the top 20 for the first time in nearly three years, following his match figures of seven for 135, including seven for 74 in the second innings.

The towering Delhi bowler jumped three places to 20th position. Sharma was last in 20th position following the third Test against the West Indies in Mumbai. Sharma now trails off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (11th), the highest-ranked India bowler, by 139 ratings points.

The 24-year-old Kumar, in his maiden Test at Lord's, returned match figures of 47-17-103-6, including six for 82 in the first innings. He vaulted 12 places to claim 34th position with team-mate Ravindra Jadeja in 28th position firmly within his sights.

In the rankings for Test Batsmen, Vijay rocketed 11 places to claim 19th position following his contributions of 24 and 95. This is his career-best ranking. Vijay is the third India batsman behind Cheteshwar Pujara (eighth) and Virat Kohli (14th) to feature inside the top 20.

Rahane, who scored a masterly 103 in the first innings, gained 11 places on the table and is now sitting in 35th position.

Despite ending up on the losing side, there was some positive news from the England camp with James Anderson and some of their young guns continuing to make upward movement.

Anderson, who returned figures of four for 60 and one for 77, lept five places to return to the top 10 in eighth position, while Ben Stokes, who took five for 91, claimed 11 places to rise to 41st position.

Liam Plunkett was also on the move following his four wickets and moved to 45th position after earning five places.

Amongst England batsmen to head in the right direction, Joe Root gained one more place to 15th position following scores of 13 and 66, while Gary Ballance stormed inside the top 50 by rising 23 places to claim 47th spot. Moeen Ali earned 16 places to 83rd position.

Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy achieved career-best rankings after inspiring their side to a 153-run victory over Sri Lanka in Galle.

Du Plessis scored 80 and 37 for which he was rewarded with a jump of four places that put him in 17th position. Duminy's fourth career century gave him a lift of 13 places and put him in 31st position.

However, South Africa captain Hashim Amla lost his second position and fell three places to fifth. A strong performance in the Colombo Test will potentially help him return into the top three.

Amongst the fast bowlers, Dale Steyn's nine wickets in the match earned him eight ratings points which helped him once again break the 900-point barrier. He is now on 906 ratings points, just two ratings points short of his career-best rating, which he had achieved against Pakistan last year in Johannesburg.

Sri Lanka's Dilruwan Perera was the other impressive bowler in the first Test. The 32-year-old, who represented Sri Lanka in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007, jumped 15 places to 39th position. He took eight wickets in the match for 241 runs.

Meanwhile, South Africa's victory in Galle left them on the verge reclaiming the number-one position on the Test Team Table. South Africa need to draw the Colombo Test to move ahead of Australia by a fraction of a point.

However, if Sri Lanka bounce back with a victory, then South Africa will slip to 120 Ratings Points- three behind Australia – while Sri Lanka with move to 99 ratings points.

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