James Anderson and Stuart Broad move up in the latest ICC Test rankings

Formerly top-ranked fast bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson of England have advanced in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings after some fine bowling in the drawn second Test against Pakistan in Southampton. Broad has moved up one slot to second position in the bowlers’ list after a haul of 4/56 while Anderson has moved up two slots to 14th with figures of 3/60, as the pair helped dismiss Pakistan for 236 in their only innings of the match.

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Abbas took 2/28 in England’s score of 110/4 declared, gaining two places to reach eighth position, but is still away from his career-best ranking of third in October 2018.

What about the batsmen?

In the batsmen’s list, Babar Azam is back at a career-best fifth position, which he had attained in February 2020. His knock of 47 helped him gain one place while his compatriots Abid Ali (up to 49th) and Mohammad Rizwan (up to 75th) have also attained career-best rankings after knocking up half-centuries.

For England, Zak Crawley has moved to a career-best 81st place after a score of 53, even as all-rounder Ben Stokes and captain Joe Root have retained their seventh and ninth positions, respectively.

In the ICC World Test Championship points table, England remain in third position with 279 points while Pakistan are fifth with 153. The list is led by India with 360 points and Australia are second at 296. Each series of the WTC is worth 120 points, distributed evenly over the number of matches in a series. The points range from 60 for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series.

The lot can be changed still in the World Test Championship with only England playing most of the Test series. They have one more match to be played against Pakistan in the ongoing summer. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also set to play a three-match Test series in the island nation starting from October 24. India and Australia are also scheduled to return to Test cricket later this year.

ICC Test all-rounders’ rankings

ICC Test bowlers’ rankings

ICC Test batsmen’s rankings