LONDON – Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler and Sam Curran made upward moves in therankings charts after England’s series-clinching 60-run victory over Indiaat Ageas Bowl.
Much like the first Test of the series, at Headingley, this one was awell-contested affair, India going down by just 60 runs in the end.
The big star of the show for England was Ali, who had been recalled for thematch and responded by striking a crucial 40 in the first innings and thenpicking up nine wickets – 5/63 and 4/71.
He was named the Player of the Match, and rose three places in the MRFTyres ICC Test Player Rankings for bowlers to No.33.
With the bat, the big performances for England came from lower down theorder. Curran, in the XI chiefly as a bowler, continued to impress as abatsman, scoring an innings-best 78 the first time and then 46 as Englandmanaged to set a big enough target to India. Jos Buttler was the other oneto have a big contribution – 69 in the second innings.
Both of them moved up, Buttler 15 places up to No 32 with a career-high 584points, and Curran 29 spots to No.43 with 545 points, also the best in hisshort career so far.
The batting chart, however, was still headed by Virat Kohli, the Indiacaptain who got there after scoring 200 runs in the first Test, slippeddown behind Steve Smith after faltering in the second Test, and has sincereturned there. In Southampton, Kohli scored 46 and 58 to take his seriestally up to 544 runs – 284 more than second-placed Buttler’s 260.[image: Moeen Ali picked up nine wickets in the Test, and rose to No.33 inthe bowlers’ list]
As a result, Kohli consolidated his position atop the table, that too witha career-high 937 points.
Unfortunately for his counterpart, the series hasn’t been as lucrative. JoeRoot has aggregated just 194 runs in seven innings, and though he is stillNo.5 on the table, his points have been going down and he is at 809 now.
It’s been worse for Alastair Cook, Root’s predecessor as England captain.Cook has scored just 109 runs so far in the series with a best of 29 at anaverage of 15.57, and has slipped four places to No.21.[image: Joe Root and Alastair Cook have both had a sequence of poor scores]
Jonny Bairstow, too, has had a horror run since fracturing his fingerduring the third Test. Prior to it, he had scored 70, 28, 93 and 15. Sincethen, it’s been 0, 6 and 0. As a result, he is five spots down to No.16.
And, while he did end up on the losing side, Cheteshwar Pujara’s 132* inthe Indian first innings helped him move to 798 points and stay put atsixth place on the batsmen’s rankings.
On to the other bowlers now, and James Anderson, though a bit off colour inthe third and fourth Tests after picking up nine wickets at Lord’s, isstill the top man. But returns of 4/119 and 2/83 at Trent Bridge and AgeasBowl have meant a points dip – he is now at 896 points after having reacheda best of 903 following the second Test.[image: Sam Curran continued to impress, especially with the bat]
While Ali spun a web around the Indians, his off-spinning counterpart fromthe opposition side toiled away without much success – Ravichandran Ashwinturned his arm over for 14.4 overs in the first innings and then, afteropening the bowling, for 37.1 overs the second time. But he picked up onlyone wicket on either occasion, and has slipped below Rangana Herath to No.8.
Mohammed Shami, though, was impressive in Southampton, especially in thesecond England hit when he returned 4/57. Add to that the 2/51 from thefirst innings, and he rose three spots to No.19.