India’s premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah scripted history, becoming the first pace bowler in Indian Cricket’s history to secure the No.1 spot in the ICC Test rankings. It is the first time the 30-year-old right-arm pacer has topped the men’s Test bowling rankings. The other Indian bowlers who had claimed the top spots in ICC Test rankings are namely Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Bishen Singh Bedi. Bumrah’s 9-wicket haul in the second Test against England helped him to rise to the top.

Despite claiming a total of 10 five-wicket hauls for his country in 34 Test matches, Bumrah had never been ranked higher than third place. Two of those five-wicket hauls came this year, with the veteran pacer taking 6/61 against South Africa in Cape Town and 6/45 in his most recent match against England.
Bumrah dethroned teammate Ashwin, who had been No.1 bowler since March last year. The senior spinner didn’t have the best of outings for India against England in Vizag, picking up only three wickets and dropping two places to third in the recently released Test bowling rankings. South Africa’s pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada grabbed the second place behind Bumrah.

Bumrah leads the Test rankings with 881 rating points. Bumrah has already been crowned the World’s No.1 in both ODIs and T20Is on different occasions in the past. Bumrah took to Instagram to share his initial response after becoming the top-ranked bowler in the longest format. Bumrah’s post titled ‘the support vs the congratulations’ has gone viral on social media.