Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc on Wednesday climbed to the top of the ICC Men's Test Bowling Rankings for the first time in his career, displacing India's Jasprit Bumrah after a remarkable performance against Bangladesh in Mackay.
Starc picked up 10 wickets in the second and final Test, which Australia won by an innings and 51 runs, and he was also named Player of the Match after returning 6/12 in the first innings, a spell that included a wicket off the first ball and a five-wicket haul in just 22 deliveries. He followed that up with figures of 4/39 in the second innings.
The left-arm pacer was also named Player of the Series after taking 12 wickets across the two Tests against Bangladesh.
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The performance lifted Starc past New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry and Bumrah to the No. 1 spot. He now has 872 rating points, 10 ahead of Bumrah, who is on 862, while Henry is third with 861 points.
Starc had previously reached a career-best ranking of No. 2, a position he first achieved following the Boxing Day Test last year.
Bumrah's Two-Month Stint At No. 1 Ends
Bumrah's latest spell at the top of the Test bowling rankings lasted two months. However, the Indian fast bowler has spent a combined 697 days as the world's No. 1-ranked Test bowler; it's the most by an Indian bowler and the 14th-highest tally overall.
Bumrah missed India's Test series in Sri Lanka after sustaining a knee injury during the ODI series in England in July, denying him the opportunity to add to his tally at the top of the rankings.
Australia captain Pat Cummins also made progress in the latest rankings, moving up to fourth place after taking six wickets across the match against Bangladesh.
England fast bowler Ollie Robinson was another major mover. His eight-wicket haul in England's innings-and-103-run win over Pakistan in the first Test in Leeds, where he was named Player of the Match, helped him jump 15 places to No. 11 among Test bowlers.
Manav Suthar And Rishabh Pant Climb The Rankings
India spinner Manav Suthar made one of the biggest gains in the latest rankings update, climbing 28 places to a career-best 48th after taking 10 wickets in India's 165-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle.
Sri Lanka's Asitha Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya also moved up five places each to 15th and 16th, respectively.
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Rishabh Pant, meanwhile, returned to the top 10 of the Test batting rankings for the first time in a year. The India wicketkeeper-batter climbed six places to seventh after scores of 39 and 66 in the Galle Test.
England's Harry Brook continues to lead the Test batting rankings and has extended his advantage over his Test captain Joe Root to 24 rating points. Brook top-scored with 90, while Root made 66 in leeds, last week, as the England pair retained the top two positions.
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