Playing a record-breaking innings on his Test captaincy debut, Vian Mulder has made a huge leap in the rankings.
Harry Brook’s outstanding performance against India at Edgbaston has also been reflected in the rankings. Brook dethroned his compatriot Joe Root, ending Root’s nearly seven-month reign to reclaim the top spot in the ICC Test batsmen rankings. In the same match, India captain Shubman Gill stormed into the top ten for the first time in his career with a flood of runs.
The ICC released its weekly update of the men’s cricket rankings on Wednesday. Brook climbed one spot to number one with 886 rating points. Root slipped to second, trailing Brook by 18 points.
Brook first reached number one last December, displacing Root, but Root regained the top position just a week later.
With innings of 158 and 23 in the Edgbaston Test, 26-year-old Brook reclaimed the throne. Meanwhile, England’s most successful Test batsman, Root, could not perform well in the match, scoring 22 and 6.
Gill, who played a starring role as India leveled the series with a 336-run victory, climbed 15 places to a career-best sixth in the rankings. His previous best was 14th in September last year. The new Indian captain began the series at number 23.
After a century on his leadership debut at Headingley, Gill followed it up with innings of 269 and 161 in the second Test. He became the first player in 148 years of Test history to score a double century and 150+ runs in the same match. He also joined an elite group as only India’s second and the world’s ninth cricketer to achieve a double century and a century in the same Test. The 25-year-old batsman set several other records in the process.
Jamie Smith also cracked the top ten for the first time, moving up 16 places to 10th after unbeaten innings of 184 and 88 at Edgbaston. The England wicketkeeper-batsman made a strong impression.
South Africa’s Vian Mulder too surged in the rankings after his record-breaking innings on his Test captaincy debut against Zimbabwe.
Mulder jumped 34 places to 22nd among batsmen. In the all-rounders’ rankings, he climbed 12 spots to third, behind Mehidy Hasan Miraz and leader Ravindra Jadeja.
Making history as the first cricketer to score a triple century on captaincy debut, Mulder remained unbeaten on 367 off 334 balls. Though he was close to Brian Lara’s world record of 400 runs, the South African stand-in captain voluntarily ended his innings, later explaining he did so out of respect for the Caribbean legend.
In the innings-and-14-run victory, Mulder also took 3 wickets and was named player of the match. South Africa won the series 2-0.
No changes occurred in the top ten of the bowlers’ rankings. Akash Deep, who took 10 wickets including six in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test, moved up 39 places to 45th. Another Indian pacer, Mohammad Siraj, climbed six spots to 22nd after taking seven wickets, including six in the first innings.
Shamar Joseph, the Caribbean pacer who took five wickets in the second Test against Australia in Grenada, advanced six places to 29th. Algerie Joseph, another Caribbean pacer who took six wickets in the match, also climbed six spots to 31st.
Jasprit Bumrah remains at the top of the bowlers’ rankings. India rested their star pacer during the Edgbaston Test.
