Mitchell Starc Dethrones Marco Jansen For Top Spot In Rankings For Test Bowlers

 

 

The South African pacer Marco Jansen’s stay at the top spot in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers lasted just one week. Australian cricketer Mitchell Starc has dethroned him in the top spot in the rankings and has displaced Jansen from the summit. South Africa’s win over Australia in the Cape Town Test has affected the latest rankings released this week. Starc produced figures of 6/72 and 3/65 in the Test, where Australia suffered a defeat by 176 runs to lose the series 2-1. Jansen was named Player of the Series for his performance, which included scoring 198 runs with the bat and taking 13 wickets in the three Tests. As a result, he became the top-ranked bowler but lasted at the pinnacle for only a week.

Jansen's compatriot Simon Harmer picked ten wickets in the Cape Town Test and was Player of the Match. The performance helped him take a leap of nine places to the seventh spot. His 817 rating points are the second-highest by a South African spinner, behind Hugh Tayfield, who had rating points of 895 in February 1957.

Thanks to this performance, Harmer jumped three positions on the all-rounders' rankings to go fifth. Jansen (No. 1 rank) and Wiaan Mulder (ranked third) are the other South Africans in the top five. Ravindra Jadeja (second) and Mehidy Hasan (fourth) are the other two players in the top five.

 

Mulder's knock of 115 in the second innings of the third Test has propelled him seven places among batters to a career-best 17th. Ryan Rickelton has jumped 25 places to 23rd after his 101.

ODI rankings have also seen some shuffling as well. Ben Duckett reached a career-best sixth rank after playing an innings of 167 runs from 132 deliveries against Sri Lanka.

 

Pavan Rathnayake scored 77 and 118, taking a leap of 20 slots to be placed 16th. Fakhar Zaman’s match-winning knock of 127 runs in the final pushed him nine places up to 37th.

After the T20I series between India and New Zealand, Shreyas Iyer rose two ranks to seventh after scoring fifty in the fifth fixture of the series. Glenn Phillips improved his position by 13 spots to occupy the 24th spot after putting in a Man of the Series performance, scoring 341 runs across five games and being named Player of the Series.