Kagiso Rabada dethrones Jasprit Bumrah to top bowlers' Test rankings

South Africa pacer, Kagiso Rabada has surpassed India speedster, Jasprit Bumrah to become the number one bowler in the ICC Test rankings. Rabada’s nine wickets haul against Bangladesh in the recently concluded first Test in Mirpur catapulted him to the top spot. He scalped his 300^th Test victim against Bangladesh, claiming three wickets in the first innings followed by a six-fer in the second. 

With this spell, he went past the 300 Test wickets, becoming the third-fastest Proteas bowler to reach the milestone in terms of matches played and the quickest in terms of ball bowled (11817) to achieve the feat. Rabada rose to the top spot of ICC Test bowler’s rankings in January 2018 and maintained the position till February 2019 before vacating the spot. 

It is worth noting that the bowler, however, lingered in the top 10 all this while. With the nine-wicket haul against Bangladesh, he overtook Josh Hazlewood and Ravichandran Ashwin to reach the coveted spot. Hazlewood occupies the second spot, whereas Bumrah and Ashwin dipped to third and fourth spot respectively.

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On the hand, Pakistan spin sensations Noman Ali and Sajid Khan have also benefited from their recent exploits against England in the second and third Test. Noman picked 11 and nine wickets in his two appearances. Sajid picked nine and 10 wickets in two Tests. As a result, Noman achieved a career-high rating of ninth spot, whereas, Sajid jumped 12 spots to reach 38^th spot.

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Speaking of the batters, Joe Root holds the first spot in the ICC ranking for Test batters despite his underwhelming performance against Pakistan in the second and Third Test. New Zealand’s young batter, Rachin Ravindra jumped eight spots to occupy tenth position after his impeccable outing against India in the first two Tests of the ongoing series.