Bumrah jumps to fourth in ODI bowling rankings

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah on Monday leapfrogged 27 places to the fourth spot in the ICC rankings for One-Day International (ODI) bowlers after scalping 15 wickets at an average of 11.26 in India's 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka.

Bumrah has moved up to his career-best fourth position in a list led by Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood with South Africa spinner Imran Tahir and Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc the other two bowlers ahead of him, according to the International Cricket Council (ICC) release.

The 23-year-old Bumrah, whose previous best was 24th position in June this year, moved up the table with his Player of the Series effort of 15 wickets, the best by any bowler in a bilateral ODI series in Sri Lanka.

Also gaining in the rankings is India's left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who moved up from 20th to 10th position after finishing with six wickets in four matches.

Patel has thus closed in on his career-high rank of ninth in October last year.

Hardik Pandya (up two places to 61st), Kuldeep Yadav (up 21 places to 89th) and Yuzvendra Chahal (up 55 places to 99th) are other India bowlers to gain in the rankings.

Captain Virat Kohli also consolidated his position at the top of the rankings for batsmen after his 330 runs in the series, which included an unbeaten 110 in the last match in Colombo on Sunday, his second century of the series.

India secured three points from their 5-0 victory and pushed their tally to 117. Australia are on 117 as well, but stay ahead on decimal points.

--IANS

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