West Indies skipper Jason Holder moves up to second spot in ICC rankings after Southampton show

The ICC rankings have been updated and West Indies captain Jason Holder has jumped up to the second spot among bowlers, which is a career best for the tall medium pacer. Holder was at his accurate best as he picked up seven wickets, including a haul of six for 42 in the first innings, against England in the first Test at Southampton.

His first innings display laid the foundation of a great victory for the Caribbean side. His rating points of 862 are the highest for any West Indian bowler for 20 years now. Former Windies great Courtney Walsh reached a tally of 866 in August 2000.

Indian cricketers, who have not taken the field since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have retained their positions in the top-10 of batsmen and bowlers rankings.

Skipper Virat Kohli remains second in the batsmen standings behind Steve Smith while Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane remain seventh and ninth respectively. Jasprit Bumrah is the only Indian bowler in the top-10 at seventh spot.

Holder retained 35th position among batsmen after the first Test and has also reached a career-best tally of 485 points at the top of the all-rounders' list. The competition at the top promises to gain momentum as number-two Ben Stokes has also made huge gains to attain a career-best tally of 431 points, narrowing the lead from 66 to 54 points.

Stokes, leading the side in the absence of Joe Root, has equalled his career-high ninth position among batsmen that he achieved last November, after scores of 43 and 46 at the Ageas Bowl. He is now only one place behind Root. Stokes has also risen three places in the bowlers' list to 23rd position with six wickets in the match.

Other England players to move up the rankings include left-handed opener Rory Burns, who is in the top 30 for the first time after scores of 30 and 42, while middle-order batsman Zak Crawley is in the top 100 after accumulating 86 runs in the match.

For the visiting side, Shannon Gabriel has gained 46 points to reach a tally of 726 with a player-of-the-match effort of nine wickets, but risen only one place to 18th owing to the wide gap between him and Ravindra Jadeja (722) before the match.

Jermaine Blackwood's superb second-innings knock of 95 has helped him advance 14 slots to 58th position among batsmen while Shane Dowrich is at a career-best 37th position after scores of 61 and 20.