Anderson soars to the top of Test bowling rankings

ICC Rankings
James Anderson

England seamer James Anderson has grabbed the top spot in the ICC Test Player Rankings for bowlers after his superb effort in the third and final Test at Lord’s helped his side to win by nine wickets to seal a 2-1 series victory over the West Indies.

The 35-year-old’s career-best figures of seven for 42 in an innings and a match haul of nine wickets see him overtake India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who he now leads by 12 points.

The third and fourth places are also taken by spinners with India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath taking those positions.

Anderson, who was the top-ranked bowler in August 2016, has reclaimed the spot to become the oldest bowler to be number-one ranked since Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralidaran in July 2009 and the oldest pace bowler to be at the top since Australia’s Glenn McGrath in January 2006.

England allrounder Ben Stokes has been another major gainer in the rankings after his player of the match performance.

His knock of 60 in the first innings has lifted him four places to a career-best 20th position among batsmen while his first-innings haul of six for 22 sees him gain two places to reach 21st position among bowlers.

These efforts also see him overtake teammate Moeen Ali to take fourth place among all-rounders.

Other England players to move up include Moeen, who has gained one spot to reach 19th place among bowlers, while Toby Roland-Jones has gained one spot to take a career-best 41st slot.

For the Windies, batsman Shai Hope, who was jointly named player of the series along with Anderson, has continued his upward surge, gaining 11 slots to take a career-best 30th position while opener Kieran Powell has moved up 18 slots to 68th position.

Among its bowlers, paceman Kemar Roach has moved up four places to 24th position after a five-wicket haul in the first innings while captain Jason Holder has moved up three places to 33rd position.

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the ICC Test Team Rankings following the series with England and the Windies retaining their pre-series 105 and 75 points, respectively.

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank    (+/-)      Player          Team      Pts       Avge    Highest Rating

1        (+1)      J. Anderson      Eng      896!     27.39   896 v Win at Lord’s 2017

2        (-1)       R. Jadeja          Ind       884       23.60   899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017

3        ( – )       R. Ashwin         Ind       852       25.26   904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016

4        ( – )       R. Herath          SL        809      28.25   867 v Zim at Harare 2016

5        ( – )       J. Hazlewood    Aus      794      25.75   863 v Ind at Bengaluru 2017

6        ( – )       K. Rabada         SA        785*    24.56   821 v SL at Johannesburg 2017

7        ( – )       Dale Steyn        SA        763       22.30   909 v Win at Centurion 2014

8        ( – )       Nathan Lyon     Aus      752 !    31.83   752 v Ban at Chittagong 2017

9        ( – )       V. Philander      SA        751       22.45   912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

10       (+1)      Neil Wagner      NZ        745       28.90   767 v SA at Dunedin 2017

ICC player rankings James Anderson

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