ICC announce new Test Rankings

ICC Test rankings change substantially after the England-Pakistan 2nd Test

The ICC Test rankings have noticed substantial changes following England’s victory over Pakistan in the second Test to level the 2-match series 1-1.

Before the 2-Test match series between England Pakistan begun, there were reports that if Pakistan manage to win both the Test matches, it would swap places with England on the ICC Test rankings. In that case, they would reach the 5th spot where as England would be pushed down to the 7th spot.

After Pakistan clinched a resounding victory in the first Test, there were hopes of the reports materializing. However, England came back strongly in the 2nd Test at Headingley to defeat Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs and level the 2 match series 1-1.

While it was all about Pakistan after the first Test and the biggest gainers came from the Sarfaraz Ahmed lead side, things have reversed after the second Test. The biggest gainers now are Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.

Stuart Broad’s 6-fer, 3 each in both the innings, helped him gain 2 spots and move to 12th spot in the ICC Test Bowlers rankings.

Compatriot Chris Woakes also profited with one place to jump up to the 34th spot after he bagged 4 wickets in the match. Veteran English pacer James Anderson also is at the second spot in the Test bowler rankings after his five-fer and is now just 3 points away from the top seated Kagiso Rabada.

Two English players who were included in the squad ahead of the series – Jos buttler and Dom Bess – saw a profit in the ICC Test Batting rankings.

Butler’s unbeaten 80-run knock helped him leap 19 places to the 63rd spot. Bess gained 23 places to move to the 92nd spot. Alastair Cook is now at the 13th place where as David Malan is at the 60th.

Pakistan leg spinner Shadab Khan has risen through the ranks as far as his batting is concerned in the series. With 3 half centuries against his name, he has climbed both in the batting as well as the bowling Test rankings.

Virat Kohli stays on as the number 2 ranked batsman in the world and will have a good chance of overtaking Steve Smith, who is banned for one year from International cricket.

Pujara too finds himself in the top 10 batsmen in the world.

From the bowlers, only two Indian bowlers make it to the Top 10, with Jaddu and Ashwin slotting into that 4th and 5th position.