Jasprit Bumrah, on Wednesday, became the first Indian pacer to top the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings after an outstanding performance in the second match of their ICC World Test Championship series against England in Visakhapatnam.
The 30-year-old’s nine-wicket match haul has helped him leapfrog Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada and Ravichandran Ashwin, making him only the fourth from India to attain number one position after spinners Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Bishan Singh Bedi.
Two of Bumrah's five-wicket hauls in 2024 have occurred in Test matches; the Indian pacer began the year with figures of 6/61 against South Africa in Cape Town, and he followed that up with a similarly brilliant 6/45 against England in his most recent outing.
Also read: England tour of India: Jasprit Bumrah’s magic tricks Ben Stokes and Co in Visakhapatnam
Bumrah, who was named Player of the Match after helping India level the five-match series in Visakhapatnam with a 106-run victory, ended Ashwin’s 11-month long reign. It is the first time Bumrah has achieved the top ranking. He never been previously went higher than third despite a total of 10 five-wicket hauls for his country in his 34 Test match appearances.
Bumrah now has a tally of 881 rating points with Ashwin (904) and Jadeja (899) being the only India bowlers to have aggregated more rating points. Ashwin and Jadeja also have the unique distinction of being jointly top ranked, in March 2017.
Despite missing the Proteas' Test series in New Zealand, South Africa's Kagiso Rabada, who leads the pace department, is still ranked second among Test bowlers. Ashwin, who has been ranked first since March of last year, took just three wickets for India in that same match and falls two spots to third.
With inputs from ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2020 via Online Media Zone.