Ben Stokes rises to career-best ranking after Headingley blockbuster


Ben Stokes‘s incredible unbeaten 135 and match haul of four wickets at Headingley have pitched him up 13 places to No. 13 in the rankings for batsmen and No. 2 for allrounders, while Jasprit Bumrah‘s remarkable 5 for 7 in North Sound have put him in the bowlers’ top ten.

Both are career-best numbers for Stokes, though, technically, he was at No. 12 among batsmen on the day the Headingley Test ended, but slipped down one spot when the rankings were updated following the end of the P Sara Oval Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, when Tom Latham moved up eight spots to eighth place as a result of his 154 in his team’s only innings.

Virat Kohli continued to top the batsmen’s chart, but the gap between him and Steven Smith, who missed the third Test because of concussion-related issues, stood at just six points.

Of the other batsmen in action in the three Tests, Kane Williamson (No. 3), Cheteshwar Pujara (No. 4) and Henry Nicholls (No. 5) held on to their spots, while Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne (up to No. 6), Joe Root (up to No. 7) and Ajinkya Rahane (up to No. 11) moved up within the top 15.

In the allrounders’ list, Jason Holder remained at the top, with Stokes now 22 points behind him in second place, having pushed down Shakib Al Hasan, Ravindra Jadeja and Pat Cummins on his way up.

Cummins, however, was still the top bowler, while along with Bumrah, who climbed nine spots, Trent Boult, Kemar Roach, Josh Hazlewood and Ishant Sharma also moved up, while Jofra Archer continued his astounding rise, his six wickets at Headingley giving him a 40-place jump to 43rd after just two Test appearances.

Bumrah’s seventh position came with a career-high rating of 774 points, while Roach moved up three spots to eighth position, Hazlewood three spots to No. 12 and Ishant, with a career-high 671 points, to 21st.



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