Former English skipper, Alastair Cook was going through a rough patch before the final Test against India, but in his farewell game, he smashed and 147 to finish off his career as the 10th-ranked batsman in ICC Tes rankings. He hung his boots from Test cricket after scoring 12,472 runs in 161 matches made him the fifth highest run-scorer in Test history – behind Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, and Rahul Dravid. In the Oval Test, he surpassed Kumar Sangakkara and took a leap of 11 positions in the latest MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings for batsmen.
It was a memorable farewell for the southpaw as he amassed 218 runs in England’s 118-run win which made him the Player of the Match as well, and he achieved the rare distinction of scoring a century in his debut as well as farewell Test.
In a series where three-figure individual scores were rare, apart from in the case of Virat Kohli, four centuries (out of eight in five Tests) came in the final Test, all in the teams’ second innings, from the blades of Cook, Joe Root (125), KL Rahul (149) and Rishabh Pant (114).
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Because of his century, Root has jumped back to No.4 on the list after a gain of one spot even as Kohli ended a remarkable series with a duck – he managed to stand at the No.1 position. Similarly, Rahul gained 16 spots to reach No.19, while Pant, playing just his third Test, went up 63 positions to get to No.111 with a career-high 285 points.
Amon the other gainers, Jos Buttler (89 in the first innings) and Ravindra Jadeja (86* in the first innings) also made upwards moves, the Englishman finishing the series at No.23 (up nine spots) and the Indian getting to No.58 (up 12 spots).
On to the bowlers then, and there was no displacing James Anderson from the top spot as his five wickets for the match helped him remain No.1.
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Anderson, who went past Glenn McGrath’s mark of 563 Test wickets during the course of the match to become the highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers, reached 899 points by the end of the series. He is four short off his all-time high of 903, and 17 more than No.2 Kagiso Rabada of South Africa.
