Windies bowlers Holder, Gabriel and Roach among top 12; Cummins grabs career-best second position while other Australia paceman Starc rockets 10 places to 15th

Windies captain Jason Holder and Australia’s Pat Cummins lead a charge of the fast brigade in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after their sides completed commanding victories over England and Sri Lanka, respectively.

Holder’s five wickets in the Antigua Test have lifted him four places to a career-best sixth position after the Windies scored an impressive 10-wicket win over England to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three match series while Cummins has moved to a career-best second position.

Holder, who last week became the first Windies player since ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Sir Gary Sobers to top the list of Test all-rounders, added another feather to his cap by reaching a tally of 778 rating points, the highest by any Windies bowler since the retirement of Courtney Walsh in 2001.

The player of the match in Antigua though was Kemar Roach, who grabbed four wickets in each innings. He was rewarded with a jump of eight slots to 12^th position, just one place behind his compatriot Shannon Gabriel, who advanced one slot.

The presence of three Windies bowlers in the top 12 is reminiscent of the dominance of their pace bowlers in the past, and the best since they had four in the top 12 in mid-1996 – Curtley Ambrose (first), Courtney Walsh (fifth), Ian Bishop (seventh) and Kenny Benjamin (12^th).

Australia fast bowlers too have made a mark in the latest rankings update. Pat Cummins has reached second position after taking four wickets in the Canberra Test while new-ball bowler Mitchell Starc’s player of the match haul of 10 wickets has lifted him 10 places to 15^th position after the 366-run victory.

Other bowlers to improve in the latest rankings update include Moeen Ali of England (up two places to 28^th) and Marnus Labuschagne of Australia (up 20 places to a career-best 54^th).

In the rankings for batsmen, Usman Khawaja has gained three slots to reach 13^th position after an unbeaten 101 in the second innings while his teammate Travis Head has gained a whopping 23 slots to reach a career-best 20^th position after scores of 161 and 59 not out.

The Windies batsmen to advance include Kraigg Brathwaite (up one place to 33^rd), Shane Dowrich (up two places to 45^th), Shai Hope (up five places to 46^th) and Darren Bravo (up two places to 55^th) after his determined 50 in 342 minutes.

For England, Jonny Bairstow’s first-innings half-century has helped him push up two places to 23^rd position while wicketkeeper Ben Foakes has gained eight places to reach 64^th in the list.

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings, which are updated at the end of each series. Australia though have gained three points after winning the two Tests against Sri Lanka. They remain in fifth position with 104 points while Sri Lanka have lost two points but stay ahead of Pakistan with 89 points.

Sri Lanka, however, face the prospect of slipping behind Pakistan during an upcoming two-Test tour of South Africa should they suffer another series loss. On the other hand, second-placed South Africa risk losing their second position, depending on how results pan out in that series as well as the last match of the Windies-England series in St Lucia.

The predictor function is available here.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings (as of 5 February after the Australia-Sri Lanka series)

RANK  TEAM              POINTS

1. India                 116
2. South Africa     110
3. England            108
4. New Zealand    107
5. Australia            104 (+3)
6. Sri Lanka           89 (-2)
7. Pakistan            88
8. West Indies       70
9. Bangladesh       69
10. Zimbabwe         13
11. Afghanistan       00
12. Ireland               00

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 5 February, after the Antigua and Canberra Tests)

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank    (+/-)      Player              Team      Pts       Avge   Highest Rating

1        ( – )       Virat Kohli         Ind       922      53.76   937 v Eng at Southampton 2018

2        ( – )       K. Williamson    NZ        897      51.44   915 v SL at Wellington 2018

3        ( – )       C. Pujara          Ind       881      51.18   888 v SL at Nagpur 2017

4        ( – )       Steve Smith      Aus      857      61.37   947 v SA at Durban 2018

5        (+2)      Henry Nicholls   NZ        763*!   43.54   763 v SL at Christchurch 2018

6        ( – )       David Warner    Aus      756       48.20   880 v NZ at Perth 2015

7        (+1)      Aiden Markram SA        741*    45.96   759 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018

8        (-3)       Joe Root           Eng      740       49.23   917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

9        ( – )       Hashim Amla    SA        711       47.33   907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

10       (+1)      Dean Elgar        SA        693       40.10   784 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018

Other selected rankings

Rank    (+/-)      Player              Team      Pts      Avge    Highest Rating

20        (+23)    Travis Head      Aus      644*!   51.00   644 v SL at Canberra 2019

23        (+2)      Jonny Bairstow  Eng      642       37.29   772 v SA at Old Trafford 2017

33        (+1)      K. Brathwaite    Win      596       35.35   701 v Eng at Headingley 2017

45        (+2)      Shane Dowrich  Win      535!     29.88   535 v Eng at Antigua 2019

46=     (+5)      Shai Hope         Win      534       28.88   653 v Zim at Bulawayo 2017

53=     (+2)      Tim Paine         Aus      509*    35.14   528 v Ind at Melbourne 2018

55        (+2)      Darren Bravo    Win      508       39.23   709 v Aus at Trinidad 2012

58        (+6)      Moeen Ali         Eng      474       30.28   655 v SA at Old Trafford 2017

64        (+8)      Ben Foakes      Eng      451*    41.50   507 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2018

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank    (+/-)      Player              Team   Pts      Avge    Highest Rating

1        ( – )       Kagiso Rabada      SA   882      21.41    902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018

2        (+1)      Pat Cummins         Aus  878*!   22.02    878 v SL at Canberra 2019

3        (-1)       James Anderson    Eng  860      26.97    903 v Ind at Lord’s 2018

4        ( – )       Vernon Philander   SA   809      21.73    912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

5        ( – )       Ravindra Jadeja     Ind   794      23.68    899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017

6        (+4)      Jason Holder          Win  778*!   27.69    778 v Eng at Antigua 2019

7        (-1)       Trent Boult             NZ   771      27.90    825 v Eng at Lord’s 2015

8        (-1)       M. Abbas               Pak  770*    18.86    838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018

9        (-1)       Tim Southee          NZ   767      29.93    799 v Win at Jamaica 2014

10       (-1)       R. Ashwin              Ind   763      25.43    904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016

Other selected rankings

Rank    (+/-)      Player                  Team  Pts      Avge    Highest Rating

11       (+1)      S. Gabriel            Win    732      29.64   757 v Ban at Jamaica 2018

12       (+8)      Kemar Roach       Win    730      27.41   774 v SA at Centurion 2014

15       (+10)    Mitchell Starc       Aus    719      28.20   805 v SA at Durban 2018

28       (+2)      Moeen Ali            Eng   609      37.07   633 v Win at Edgbaston 2017

53       (+12)    Alzarri Joseph      Win    288*!   31.27   288 v Eng at Antigua 2019

54       (+20)    M. Labuschagne   Aus   285*!   27.11   285 v SL at Canberra 2019

All-rounders (top five)

Rank    (+/-)      Player              Team      Pts      Highest Rating

1        ( – )       Jason Holder     Win      448/*!  448 v Eng at Antigua 2019

2        ( – )       S. Al Hasan       Ban      415      489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017

3        ( – )       R. Jadeja          Ind       387      438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017

4        (+1)      V. Philander      SA        341      377 v SL at Galle 2018

5        (-1)       Ben Stokes       Eng      331      395 v Win at Lord’s 2017

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

!indicates career-highest rating

For more information on player rankings, please click here.

-ICC