Pakistan legspinner Yasir Shah has displaced England quick James Anderson from the No. 1 spot in the ICC rankings for Test bowlers. Yasir is the first legspinner since Shane Warne in 2005 to be ranked No. 1, and the first Pakistan bowler since Mushtaq Ahmed in December 1996.
Yasir’s rise to the top came as a result of his performance in the first Test against England at Lord’s, where he took 10 for 141 to bowl Pakistan to a 75-run victory. Anderson did not play the game because he was recovering from a shoulder injury.
Yasir has 86 wickets from 13 Tests – the most by any bowler after that many games – and has a chance of breaking a 120-year old record – the fastest to 100 Test wickets. George Lohmann, the England bowler, had reached the mark in 16 matches in 1896.
Yasir was ranked No. 4 before the start of the England tour, but a compelling display on a day-two pitch offering no turn and remarkable exploitation of a wearing pitch and worried batsmen on day four pushed him up three places. His 6 for 72 in the first innings and 4 for 69 in the second made him the first legspinner to claim a 10-for at Lord’s. Among his wickets was a vicious legbreak that pitched a considerable distance outside the left-handed Gary Ballance’s off stump and turned square to hit leg stump, invoking memories of Shane Warne bowling Andrew Strauss in Edgbaston in the 2005 Ashes.
The Lord’s Test was Yasir’s first outside the subcontinent and his 10 for 141 is his best bowling performance in a match. Chris Woakes, England’s standout player in their home summer, has vaulted 28 places up the bowlers’ rankings after his 11 for 102. He is at No. 36.
Anderson, who is likely to return for the second Test at Old Trafford from July 22, dropped down to third place with Stuart Broad at fourth. India offspinner R Aswhin, who is in the West Indies preparing for a four-Test series, is at No. 2.
Australia captain Steven Smith is the top-ranked Test batsman, followed by New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, South Africa’s Hashim Amla.
Courtesy: ESPNCricInfo
