England’s record breaking wicket-taker, James Anderson has returned to the top spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after his superb performance in the third and final Test at Lord’s.
Anderson helped secure victory by taking nine wickets and sealing a 2-1 series win over the Windies.
The 35-year-old, who took career-best figures of seven for 42 in the second innings and a total of nine wickets in the match, overtakes India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. They’re both closely followed in the rankings by India’s Ravichandran and Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath.
7-42 - Career best figures for James Anderson
Anderson, who was the top-ranked bowler in August 2016, has reclaimed the top spot in the same week he became the first Englishman to take 500 Test wickets. He is also the oldest number-one ranked bowler ranked since Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in July 2009 and the oldest pace bowler to be at the top since Australia’s Glenn McGrath in January 2006.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes is another major mover in the rankings. Stokes, who scored 60 in the first innings and took 6/22 has seen him move above team-mate Moeen Ali to take fourth place in the all-rounder's rankings. He has also reached a career-best 20th position in the batting rankings reach 21st position amongst the bowlers.
Other England players to move up include Moeen, who has gained one spot to reach 19th place among bowlers, while Toby Roland-Jones has gained one spot to take a career-best 41st slot.
England’s opponents in the Test series have seen batsman Shai Hope, who was jointly named player of the series along with Anderson, continued his upward surge, gaining 11 slots to take a career-best 30th position while opener Kieran Powell has moved up 18 slots to 68th position.
Among its bowlers, pace bowler Kemar Roach has moved up four places to 24th position after a five-wicket haul in the first innings while captain Jason Holder has moved up three places to 33rd position.
Meanwhile, there has been no change in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings following the series with England and the Windies retaining third and eighth place, respectively.