Young Indians climb up the ladder in ICC Test Rankings

By Abhishek Manroa

NEW DELHI (TheSportsNext) September 5, 2012: India’s 2-0 clean-sweep over New Zealand in the recently concluded Test series helped its key players to climb up the ladder in the ICC Test Rankings as Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, and Virat Kohli all saw promotions in the list.

 

As per the Reliance ICC Test Rankings, orthodox off-spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, for the first time in his Test career, stormed into the top 20 best bowlers at 18^th position by jumping 26 places after he got rid of 18 New Zealand batsmen during the two-match Test series.

His fellow left-arm off-spinner Pragyan Ojha vaulted to 17^thplace in the ICC Test Rankings for bowlers as he also caused enough damage to the touring BlackCaps to fold them in both the Test matches.

As far as Indian batsmen are concerned, Virat Kohli led the way as he jumped 12 places to hit 35 in the ICC Test Rankings for Batsmen after the right-hander scored 154 runs in the Bengaluru Test.

While young Indian cricketers moved up the rankings, the experienced Indian batsmen like Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir all lost values as Sachin went down by five places to hit 16^th, Sehwag lost one place at 23rd whereas Gautam Gambhir hit 38th after falling by two places in the ICC Rankings.

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Southee, Ashwin shine to leave Bangalore Test evenly poised

By Abhishek Manroa

Ravichandran Ashwin had another day filled with wickets

NEW DELHI (TheSportsNext) September 3, 2012: New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee recorded best Test figures while Indian offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin took another five-wicket haul as 14 wickets fell on a busy third day of Bangalore Test leaving the Test evenly poised with tourists leading by 244 runs with only one wicket in hand.

India started the day at 283 for 5 and soon right-hand Indian batting sensation Virat Kohli proved his worth in the Test squad as he scored his second Test hundred. Once Virat Kohli fell after scoring 103 runs, things looked shaky for the home side as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (62) soon followed and the tail-enders managed to add 43 runs into the total.

Fast bowler Tim Southee stole the limelight and captured seven wickets for 64 runs and gave New Zealand a slender 12-run first innings lead. Ravichandran Ashwin remained not out at 32 from 40 hitting five boundaries as he ran out of partners at the other end.

New Zealand lost both openers in the space of 10 deliveries as Martin Guptill, who had hit half century in the first innings, failed to emulate on his performance and fell to Umesh Yadav for seven runs while Brendon McCullum once again failed to prove his worth in the top-order and fell to Yadav for only 23 runs.

Kane Williamson (13) showed promise before becoming first victim of Ashwin but skipper Ross Taylor (37) and Daniel Flynn (31) added 42 runs for the fourth wicket. Flynn also was involved in a 29-run partnership with James Franklin, who came out as the top-scorer of the innings.

With Franklin and Kruger van Wyk (31) looked settled at the crease, New Zealand looked good to give India a 300-plus target but a reckless shot selection by James Franklin (41) opened floodgates for the Indian spinner Ashwin who rattled the lower order and India restricted the Kiwis to nine down for 232 at stumps on day 3.

Ravichandran Ashwin captured five wickets for 69 runs while Umesh Yadav took two wickets for 62 runs.

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