It may not have been a great few days for England but veteran pacer James Anderson is making the ball talk and his super-show in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test has resulted in him rising in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers. The International Cricket Council released the latest rankings on Wednesday and Anderson has broken into the top 5 with 813 rating points, just one behind New Zealand’s Tim Southee.
The other cricketer, who gained the most from the MCG Test was Australian pacer, Mitchell Starc. While he remained at the 9th position in the bowlers’ list, he rose up in the all-rounders’ list. He not just entered the top 5, but also displaced star England all-rounder Ben Stokes from the spot.
While Stokes’ poor form has continued, Starc has impressed with both bat and ball. Going with his five wickets in the game, Starc scored 24 runs with the bat to help Australia get to a score of 267 in the first innings, which eventually proved to be enough for them to retain the urn and win the series 3-0.
Among other major changes, debutant Scott Boland with his figures of 6/7 entered the rankings at No. 74 while off-color Marcus Harris’ return-to-form with a knock of 76 runs saw him jump 29 places and enter straight into the top 100.
There were no major changes as far as the batting rankings were concerned apart from one as Australia vice-captain Steve Smith slipped one place to No. 4 after he was dismissed cheaply for just 16 by Anderson himself. Smith at 877, is two rating points behind New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson. However, his countryman Marnus Labuschagne remained at the top, while Joe Root was occupying the second place.
