Pragyan Ojha, Cheteshwar Pujara surge in ICC Test rankings

By Osama Tariq

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (TheSportsNEXT) November 20, 2012: Following an impressive nine wickets victory over England in Ahmedabad Test, Indian players surged in the latest edition of the ICC Test Rankings released Tuesday.

Left-arm off-spinner Pragyan Ojha, who took nine wickets in the Ahmedabad Test, jumped nine places into top-five bowlers in Test cricket.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who hit unbeaten double century and was there at the wicket when Virat Kohli hit the winning runs, skyrocketed by 35 places to 24^th position in the latest edition of the LG ICC Test Rankings.

A 176-run innings helped English skipper Alastair Cook storm into top ten best batsmen in the Test cricket as he gained four places to stay at seventh position in ICC Test Rankings.

The other hero for England in the Ahmedabad Test, wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior has become the fifth English batsman among the 20 best Test batsmen as he scampered to 18^th in the rankings.

India’s top player in the ICC Test Rankings for Batsmen is opening batsman Virender Sehwag who is at 22^nd place with his 23^rdTest century propelling him by one place.

Read More

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.

Read More