Joe Root reclaims No. 1 Test batter spot; Five Australians now in top 10 of ICC bowling rankings

Joe Root reclaimed the No. 1 Test batter spot after stellar knocks at Lord’s, while Australia now have five bowlers in the ICC top 10. Scott Boland hit a career-high sixth rank, and Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Jadeja saw major shifts.

Hyderabad: England’s star batter Joe Root has reclaimed the top position in the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings within a week of losing it to fellow Yorkshire player Harry Brook while Scott Boland has attained a career best as five Australians are now in the top 10 of the bowling rankings.

Root’s scores of 104 and 40 in the third Test of the five-match ICC World Test Championship (WTC) series against India at Lord’s that the home side won by 22 runs to take a 2-1 lead, see him start his eighth stint at the top. At the age of 34, he is the oldest No. 1 Test batter since Kumar Sangakkara in December 2014, when the Sri Lankan was 37.

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Changes in top five of Test batting rankings: The top five sees a rejig with Brook also slipping behind Kane Williamson to third position and Steve Smith overtaking Yashasvi Jaiswal to fourth in the latest weekly update that considers performances in the Lord’s Test as well as the Kingston Test between the West Indies and Australia, which the visiting side won by 176 runs to complete a 3-0 WTC series win.

Australia all-rounder Cameron Green’s scores of 46 and 42 in a low-scoring match have lifted him 16 places to joint-29th position. India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s valiant 61 not out that followed a first innings scores of 72 has lifted lifting him five places to 34th while K.L. Rahul is one spot behind him in 35th position, also gaining five positions with scores of 100 and 39.

India captain Shubman Gill has slipped three places to ninth in the batting rankings while England captain Ben Stokes’s Player of the Match effort of 77 runs and five wickets in the match have lifted him two places to 42nd among batters and one spot to 45th among bowlers.

Five Australians in top 10 of Test bowling rankings: The top five of the bowling rankings remains unchanged, Jasprit Bumrah’s seven wickets at Lord’s helping him maintain his 50-point lead over Kagiso Rabada. However, Boland’s three wickets in each innings that included a hat-trick in the second, has lifted him six places to a career-best sixth position as five from Australia are now in the top 10.

Bolland, whose 62 wickets in Test cricket have come at just 16.53 apiece with only ICC Hall of Famers George Lohmann and Sydney Barnes having taken wickets at a better average, joins his four compatriots already in the top 10 – Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc. This kind of domination has not been seen since England had six bowlers in the top 12 in 1958.

The West Indies, who were shot out in the second innings for the second lowest ever score of 27, had some good news in the bowling rankings with Shamar Joseph’s eight wickets in the match enabling him to reach a career-best 14th position, with Alzarri Joseph (up two places to 29th) and Justin Greaves (up 15 places to 65th) also moving up.

India all-rounder Washington Sundar is another one to gain in the bowling rankings, his four second innings wickets taking him from 58th to 46th position.