Mitchell Starc has gone to the top of the ICC Test bowling rankings for the first time in his career. The Australia left-armer climbed two places to displace Jasprit Bumrah after a ten-wicket haul in the second Test against Bangladesh at Mackay, where his 6 for 12 and 4 for 39 delivered a win by an innings and 51 runs and squared the series.
ESPNcricinfo reported on Wednesday that Bumrah has slipped to second and Matt Henry to third, while Pat Cummins, who took 3 for 25 and 3 for 10 in the same match, moved up a place to fourth. Nathan Lyon gained two spots to enter the top ten on the back of a three-wicket second innings. Starc was named player of the series.
England’s climbers in the ICC Test bowling rankings
The two sharpest rises belonged to England. Ollie Robinson jumped 15 places to 11th after eight wickets on his Test comeback at Headingley, where England beat Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs. Josh Tongue, who also took eight in Leeds, climbed 16 places to 17th. Sri Lanka’s Asitha Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya each gained five spots, to 15th and 16th, after the defeat to India in Galle.
Among the batters, Harry Brook stayed top of the table after his 91 in the same Headingley Test, and Rishabh Pant rose six places to re-enter the top ten in seventh. Kamindu Mendis and Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped out of it after low scores in Galle.
Robinson and Tongue get another chance to climb from Thursday, when the second Test against Pakistan begins at Lord’s, per BBC Sport. Starc, whose ten wickets at Mackay levelled a two-day series, holds a No. 1 ranking that had eluded him for an entire career until this week.
