Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: James Anderson has become the seventh bowler and the first in 28 years from England to hit the 900-point mark in the ICC Test Player Rankings after an outstanding performance in the second Test against India at Lord’s on Sunday. England won by an innings and 159 runs to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. Anderson has 905 points under his belt after securing 9-43 match figures. He now stands in the league comprising Sydney Barnes (932), George Lohmann (931), Tony Lock (912), Ian Botham (911), Derek Underwood (907) and Alec Bedser (903), all of whom peaked at over 900 points during their careers. Anderson is England’s all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests with 553 wickets and the only one to claim 100 Test wickets at Lord’s, and is the first England bowler to breach the coveted mark since Botham touched 900 points in August 1980.

Anderson now leads second-placed South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada by 21 points in the bowlers’ list. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has conceded the top spot for batsmen just over a week after overtaking Steve Smith, failing to lift his team out of difficult situations in the Lord’s Test. The India captain played knocks of 23 and 17 even as his side succumbed for 107 and 130.

The low scores and one-sided loss have led to a fall in rankings for most India players with Ravichandran Ashwin the notable exception, moving up in the list for batsmen from 67th to 57th, with defiant innings of 29 and 33 not out. Ashwin has also leap-frogged South Africa’s Vernon Philander to grab the third position among all-rounders. All-rounder Hardik Pandya has moved up 25 places to take 74th spot among bowlers.

Published in Daily Times, August 14^th 2018.