Off-spinner Graeme Swann has jumped no fewer than 17 places and into the top 10 in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers for the first time in his career.
The 30-year-old took eight wickets in the match underlying his position as England’s top slow bowler and moving to 10th in the latest rankings.
Another England bowler to make an upward move is man of the match Stuart Broad, whose inspired five-wicket haul in the first innings set up the victory for the home team as Australia collapsed to 160 all out.
Broad gains 11 places to 13th spot in the rankings, level with Australia’s fast bowler Peter Siddle, who moves up four places after another consistent performance from the 24-year-old Victorian.
The bowling list is still headed by South Africa’s Dale Steyn with Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka second and Australia’s Mitchell Johnson hanging on to third.
In the batting rankings, a failure of Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara to fire in the first Test against New Zealand at Galle and Michael Clarke’s disappointing showing at the Oval has opened the door for India’s Gautam Gambhir, who returns to the number-one spot.
Sangakkara, who had been top prior to the Galle Test, scored eight and 46 in the match, which was not enough to keep him at the top. Clarke could only manage a total of three runs in the Oval Test, a disappointing return for him and one that drops him three places to fifth in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen.
Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena has moved up two places to seventh in the batting list following his first-innings century against New Zealand.
Australia’s Ricky Ponting may have scored a battling half-century in the second innings but his overall match contribution did not save him from losing two places as he slips to ninth in the rankings.
Victorious captain Andrew Strauss was the stand-out England batsman of the series and his two half-centuries at the Oval were enough to move him up three spots to 12th position, level with South Africa’s AB de Villiers. Meanwhile, debutant Jonathan Trott has announced his name on the world stage with his crucial innings of 41 and 119 and, as a result, has joined the rankings in the unusually high position of 52nd spot.
The other main movers in the top 20 were both Sri Lankan with Thilan Samaraweera gaining four places to 16th position after his 159 in the first innings against the Black Caps and Tillakaratne Dilshan breaking into the top 20 after hugely impressive innings of 92 and 123 not out in Galle.
Following the news that England’s Andrew Flintoff was to retire from Test cricket after the Ashes, there was much discussion about who could be the person to replace him as the team’s all-rounder. As if to make his own contribution to that debate, Broad’s efforts has pushed him ahead of Flintoff and into the top five of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders.
The 23-year-old Nottinghamshire player scored 66 runs in the match and took six wickets for 108 and as a result he knocks Flintoff out of the top five. The list is still led by Jacques Kallis of South Africa, followed by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who moves up one place to second position ahead of Johnson in third.
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