Jasprit Bumrah becomes first Indian pacer to top ICC rankings

Indias pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on Wednesday rose to the top of the ICC Test bowling rankings becoming the firstever fast bowler from the country to achieve the feat The 30yearold played a key role in Indias seriesequalling victory in the IND vs ENG 2nd Test last week with a match haul of nine wickets Bumrah replaced his teammate offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin at the top of the ICC table While Bumrah climbed three places to reach the top Ashwin dropped to third South African pacer Kagiso Rabada held on to second place despite being out of action in the ongoing Test series in New ZealandThe 30yearolds ninewicket match haul has helped him leapfrog Pat Cummins Kagiso Rabada and Ravichandran Ashwin making him only the fourth from his country to attain number one positionBumrah who was named Player of the Match after helping India level the fivematch series with a 106run victory ended Ashwins 11month long reign Ashwin on 499 Test wickets is now third in the standingsAlso ReadTo err is DRSBumrah now has 881 rating points with Ashwin 904 and Jadeja 899 the only India bowlers to have aggregated more rating points Ashwin and Jadeja also have the unique distinction of being jointly topranked in March 2017Before Bumrah only three Indian bowlers have been at the pinnacle of ICCs Test bowling rankings Ashwin Ravindra Jadeja and the legendary leftarm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi who passed away last year The previous highestranking Indian pace bowler was Kapil Dev who held the second rank for a brief period between December 1979 and February 1980 Leftarmer Zaheer Khan was number three from October to November 2020 In the latest round of rankings Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal leapfrogged 37 places to become the 29thranked Test batsman on the back of his double century in the IND vs ENG 2nd Test New Zealand captain Kane Williamson who led his team to victory against South Africa Wednesday with a century in each innings continued to dominate the Test batting rankingsThe latest rankings have also factored in performances in the oneoff Test between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in Colombo Leftarm spinner Prabhath Jayasuriya has moved up to three places to a careerbest sixth position after his eightwicket match haul helped the home side win by 10 wicketsIn the ODI rankings Australia legspinner Adam Zampa is up one place to third and fast bowler Sean Abbotts six wickets in the threematch series against the West Indies this past week have lifted him 35 places to joint33rd positionWith agency inputs