R Ashwin surges to No. 1 in Test bowling rankings

India offspinner R Ashwin has replaced England's James Anderson as the No. 1 bowler in the ICC Test rankings.

Ashwin's rise was the result of him taking six wickets in the second Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Delhi, and he has the opportunity to extend his lead at the top in the remaining two Tests of the series.

Anderson had displaced Australia's Pat Cummins as the No. 1 bowler on February 22, after taking seven wickets in the first Test against New Zealand. At the age of 40, he was the oldest top-ranked bowler since Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett in 1936. However, Anderson took only three wickets in the second Test against New Zealand, which wasn't enough to hold off Ashwin's surge up the charts.

India's Jasprit Bumrah and Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi have moved up one spot each to fourth and fifth in the latest rankings update, despite neither bowler having played a Test since July last year. This is because England's Ollie Robinson has dropped down two spots to No. 6.

India's left-arm spinning allrounder Ravindra Jadeja moved to eighth in the Test bowling rankings following his Player-of-the-Match performance - 10 wickets and 26 runs - in the Delhi Test against Australia. He also leads the Test rankings for allrounders, with Ashwin in second place.

England's Joe Root moved up to eighth in the allrounder's rankings and also to third in the rankings for batters, after scoring 153* and 95 in the Wellington Test last week. Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith are first and second among Test batters.

Harry Brook, after playing just six Tests, has already jumped to 16th place among batters, level with Virat Kohli. Brook has scored 809 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 98.77.