India’s historic win at Lord’s, only their second at the home of cricket in 82 years, has seen Indian players Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane make noticeable improvements in the latest ICC Test Player Rankings, released on Tuesday.
Ishant, who took a match-winning seven-wicket haul in the team’s 95-run win in the first Test against England, jumped three places to return to the top-20 of the Test bowlers’ chart for the first time in three years.
Ishant, who is now 20th, now trails off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (11th), the highest-ranked India bowler, by 139 ratings points.
The 24-year-old Kumar, in his maiden Test at Lord’s, returned with productive overall match figures of 6/103, with all his six scalps coming in the first innings. He has vaulted 12 places to claim 34th position with team-mate Ravindra Jadeja in 28th position.
In the Test batting chart, Vijay rocketed 11 places to claim a career-best 19th spot following his contributions of 24 and 95 in the first and second innings respectively.
Vijay, 30, is the third India batsman behind Cheteshwar Pujara (eighth) and Virat Kohli (14th) to feature inside the top 20, a list that is led by South Africa’s AB de Villiers.
Rahane, 26, who scored a masterly 103 in the first innings, has gained 11 places on the table and is now sitting in the 35th position.
Meanwhile, despite ending up on the losing side, there was some positive news for the England camp with pace spearhead James Anderson and some of the young guns continuing to make upward movement.
Anderson, who picked 4 wickets in the first innings and 1 in the second leaped 5 places to be ranked 8th in the Test bowlers chart led by South Africa’s Dale Steyn.
Ben Stokes, who took five for 91, claimed 11 places to rise to 41st position. Liam Plunkett also jumped 5 spots to be ranked 45th in the list.
Amongst England batsmen to head in the right direction, Joe Root has gained one more place and is now in 15th position following scores of 13 and 66.
Gary Ballance, who stroked 110 in England’s first innings, moved inside the top-50 by rising 23 places to claim 47th spot. All-rounder Moeen Ali has earned 16 places ato be placed 83rd.
India, ranked fourth in the Test team list led by Australia, play their third Test against the hosts in Southampton starting July 27.
* This report has been corrected for a factua l error
