Ashwin and Kohli achieve personal bests in MRF Tyres ICC Test rankings by International Cricket Council

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Scorecard:	India v England
Player:	R Ashwin, V Kohli, KK Jennings
Event:	England in India 2016/17

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DateLine: 13th December 2016

 

India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has consolidated his position at the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers after his match haul of 12-167 in the fourth Test against England in Mumbai helped the home side score an innings and 36 runs victory for a winning 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

 

Ashwin, who had touched the coveted 900-point mark for the first time in October when he had reclaimed the top-ranking, has reached 904 points to run up a 37-point lead over second-placed Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka.

 

Ashwin’s rating is the second best-ever by an off-spinner after Muttiah Muralidaran (920), fifth best among spinners after Tony Lock (912), Derek Underwood (907) and Shane Warne (905), and the 18th in the overall list.

 

Ashwin, who grabbed six wickets each in the two innings in Mumbai, had finished the 2015 year-end rankings as the number-one bowler and was also at the top briefly in July this year. He is also the top-ranked all-rounder at 483 points and enjoys a healthy lead over Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, who is on 405 points with England’s Ben Stokes third with 341 points.

 

Ashwin’s spin partner Ravindra Jadeja has bridged the gap with Stokes to just one point in the all-rounders’ list after taking six wickets in Mumbai. Jadeja’s continued success has also helped him reach a career-best ranking of sixth among bowlers.

 

In the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, India captain Virat Kohli has continued his surge towards the top after his player of the match performance of 235 in India’s only innings in Mumbai. The 28-year-old’s highest Test score has earned him 53 points, which has lifted him by one position to a career-best second rank. He is now is in line to top the rankings in all three forms of the game at some point in time.

 

Kohli, who is currently ranked second in One-Day Internationals and first in Twenty20 Internationals, is just 11 points behind Australia captain Steve Smith, who will get a chance to maintain his top ranking in an upcoming three-Test series against Pakistan.

 

Other India players to make upward movements among batsmen are opener Murali Vijay and all-rounder Jayant Yadav. Vijay has moved up five places to 24th position after his knock of 136 while Yadav’s 104 runs at number nine position, has pushed him up 31 slots to 56th rank.

 

For England, debutant opener Keaton Jennings has entered the batsmen’s rankings at an impressive 64th position after innings of 112 and zero.

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2016 International Cricket Council)