Dubai: Indian players continued to rule the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings as Ranchi double-centurion Cheteshwar Pujara gained four spots to a career-best No. 2 spot while his teammate Ravindra Jadeja consolidated his stay on top of the bowler’s list after pushing fellow tweaker Ravichandran Ashwin to the No. 2 spot.
Jadeja, who grabbed nine Australian wickets in the drawn third Test, gained seven points after starting joint-first with Ashwin at 892 points. The left-arm spinner has become only the third Indian player after Ashwin and Bishan Bedi to top the bowling charts on his own.
Jadeja, who grabbed five for 124 and four for 52 in Ranchi, has also closed in on a major landmark as his tally of 899 rating points puts him on the brink of becoming only the second India bowler after Ashwin to touch the 900-point mark. Ashwin, who had a highest rating of 904 points, has slipped 37 points behind Jadeja to 862 points after finishing with only two wickets in Ranchi.
India pacer Umesh Yadav also gained three places to find himself at a career-high No. 26 while South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj has risen 15 places to reach a career-best 37th spot after taking eight wickets against New Zealand in Wellington while Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh jumped 20 spots to be positioned at No. 47.
Meanwhile, in the Test rankings for batsmen, Australia’s top-ranked Steve Smith reached a career-high rating of 941 points after scores of 178 not out and 21 in the Ranchi Test. The Kangaroo skipper’s tally is the joint-fifth highest ever along with Peter May. Only Don Bradman (961), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (942) have achieved higher rating points.
Among the Indians, while Pujara replaced New Zealand captain Kane Williamson to take the second spot, the other Ranchi centurion Wriddhiman Saha vaulted 14 points to No. 51.
Pujara still has one more Test to play in the ongoing Australia series before the top-order stalwart slips out of India’s sporting consciousness as the nation shifts its focus to the bedlam of white-ball cricket.
Considered a ‘Test specialist’, a euphemism for a limited-overs misfit, Pujara failed to land an Indian Premier League contract and will be twiddling his thumbs when the star-studded Twenty20 tournament kicks off next month.
The 29-year-old is not in the 50-over mix either, having played the last of his five One-day Internationals nearly three years ago, so will only be an interested observer in India’s Champions Trophy campaign in England and Wales in June.
But as India’s marathon 13-Test home season draws to a close after the fourth and deciding match against Australia in Dharamsala later this week, captain Virat Kohli gave a ringing endorsement of Pujara’s worth in the longest format.
“Sometimes I feel really bad for him that people don’t understand his importance in this team so much,” Kohli said after the drawn third Test.
“You know what a valuable player he is for us. He is the most composed player we have in the team ... Someone like that is priceless to have in the team.”
Pujara batted more than 11 hours, forging a 199-run partnership with Wriddhiman Saha in the process, to put India into a position where they could target a win that was only denied them by an equally obstinate Australian unit.
With his watertight defence and an extraordinary ability to play long innings, Pujara wore down the visiting bowlers to register his third double century in test cricket.
“This season he has been outstanding. He has contributed throughout. He’s not being spoken about or being in the focus too much but I think he deserves much more than that,” Kohli added.
— IANS
