Bumrah, who is in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin

Jasprit Bumrah is the only reason why India still go into the Sydney Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a chance of levelling the series, and everybody in the world knows it.

With 30 wickets in the series at a remarkable average of 12.83, the pacer has kept Australia on the edge, and as a result of that performance he is not only the highest-ranked bowler in the ICC Test rankings but has also recorded the highest peak rating points ever achieved by an Indian bowler.

Bumrah, who is also in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and also the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin. His tally of 907 rating points — he is on top of the rankings released on Wednesday with Josh Hazlewood of Australia at 843 a distant second — now places him joint 17th in the all-time ratings list.

Ashwin had achieved the 904 rating in December 2016 after the fourth Test against England at Wankhede after picking up 24 wickets in his previous three Tests.

The peak ratings list is led by England seamers Sydney Barnes (932) and George Lohmann (931), who played more than a century ago, while Imran Khan (922) and Muttiah Muralitharan (920) are third and fourth.

The nine-wicket match haul at Melbourne also saw Bumrah become the only bowler in Test history with more than 200 wickets at an average under 20. That’s better than the great Malcolm Marshall (20.94), Joel Garner (20.97), Curtly Ambrose (20.99) and Fred Trueman (21.57).

Incidentally, the highest ever rating points achieved by an Indian batter is 937– by Virat Kohli after the Test against England at Southampton in 2018. He is 11th in the list of all-time highest rated batters.

While ratings form the basis of the ICC’s weekly rankings, plotting of week-on-week cumulative rating points also offer a clear insight on how a player’s career panned out over the years. The highest rating points achieved goes on to show where a particular player reached the peak of his career.

The ICC says its ratings “take account of the opposition strength; so there shouldn’t be any obvious advantage to playing against any particular team”. But the ratings are not really comparable over different eras. The reason for that is simple: how a player performs is linked to the quality of the opposition in any given era, so a rating of 900 during the time of the West Indies bowling greats may actually be at par with 950 at a time when such a bowling attack not in operation. Still, the ratings are a useful tool that tell you about a player’s consistency and impact on the sport at a given time.

“He (Bumrah) has been their most influential player and he’s made it difficult for us at times,” Australian skipper Pat Cummins said about Bumrah after the Melbourne Test. “He poses the biggest threat. Bumrah is still going to create a threat no matter where he enters the game. In Sydney, he’ll be a threat again, so we’re going to have to be able to combat that.”

To be sure, Cummins has a ratings peak of 914 — achieved after the 2019 Old Trafford Test against England — which places him fifth on the all-time list. He is currently third in the ranking with a rating of 837.

On the batting front, Kohli, who once ruled the rankings, has fallen to No 24 with a rating on 633. Rohit Sharma comes in at 40, with a rating of 560 (his best-ever rating was 813 after the Test against England at the Oval in 2021). Yashasvi Jaiswal is currently the top Indian batter in fourth place in the rankings at 854, which is also his peak rating.

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As Virat Kohli faces scrutiny after a shoulder bump with debutant Sam Konstas, an Australian writer’s X post has left fans angry.

After Indian cricketer Virat Kohli is making headlines again after video footage showed him intentionally bump into Australia’s 19-year-old debutant, Sam Konstas on the field during India’s fourth Test match against the Aussies. The two cricketers also engaged in a verbal altercation after the collision.

In a interview, Konstas revealed that he didn’t realise what happened as he was just taking care of his gloves after the end of the over. “I think emotions got to both of us. I didn’t realise. I was just doing my gloves when I got the little shoulder charge but it happens in cricket,” he told Channel 7.

Australian writer draws heat
Australian journalist and cricketer writer Peter Lalor joined in the conversation around the clash and shared a screenshot of what appears to be an edited Wikipedia entry for Sam Konstas. The image shows that the 19-year-old cricketer’s Wikipedia bio reads: “He is also the father of Virat Kholi.”

“Oh this is a bit mischievous. Konstas father of Kohli,” the journalist wrote.

HT.com checked the Australian batsman’s Wikipedia page but found no such entry. The image was either edited or the addition has since been removed. The post drew sharp reactions as users slammed Lalor for sharing

“Seriously Peter? Laughing on a silly Wikipedia edit by some random fan. This is embarrassing. You’re a journalist. Behave like one,” said one user. “And I though you were a grown man,” said another user.

Other fans took a less dignified approach and shared edited versions of Wikipedia entries for Lalor and Australia to mock the writer.

On-field clash sparks meme fest
The video of the exchange has sparked a meme fest on social media with some criticising Kohli for his aggressive stance while other defending him for hitting back at the Australian team which is known for frequent sledging on the field. Here are some of the reactions:

Can Kohli be banned for confrontation?
Match referee Andy Pycroft will assess the incident between Kohli and Konstas to determine if the Code of Conduct was breached. According to the ICC’s Code of Conduct, “any form of inappropriate physical contact is prohibited in cricket.”

If Pycroft determines that the shoulder bump was as a Level Two offence, either Kohli or Konstas could face accumulation of four demerit points which would trigger a suspension. This could rule the cricketer out of the next test match. A Level One offence, however, would likely result in a match fee fine, with no further repercussions.

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Jasprit Bumrah: The India sling king who’s revelling in Australia

With his “slingshot” delivery and ability to unsettle the world’s best batsmen, India’s Jasprit Bumrah is widely regarded as one of cricket’s greatest fast bowlers.

The 31-year-old has defied career-threatening back problems and on Wednesday overtook Kapil Dev to become India’s leading Test wicket-taker in Australia.

Bumrah, India’s player of the series so far, took nine wickets in the third Test at Brisbane to move to 53 in Australia and past Dev’s previous mark of 51.

He was player of the match in India’s 295-run victory in Perth in the opening Test, before the hosts levelled the series in Adelaide.

He is the leading bowler on either side with 21 wickets in the series so far at a scarcely believable average of 10.90. The next best are Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with 14 dismissals each.

“I think he is definitely India’s greatest fast bowler,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said of Bumrah.

“In T20 cricket, one-day cricket and Test match cricket, he’s clearly the best right now.”

Travis Head, who has excelled with the bat for Australia in the five-match series scoring two centuries and a fifty, went even further.

“Jasprit is probably going to go down as one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game,” said Head.

Bumrah, captaining in the first Test in the absence of Rohit Sharma, made life hell for the Australian batsmen on a bouncing Perth pitch.

He took 5-30 from 18 overs as the hosts were shot out for 104 and followed up with 3-42 in the second innings as India won by 295 runs.

His unorthodox front-on action allows him to release the ball late and he can bowl yorkers at will.

Australia’s quick bowler Josh Hazlewood marvelled at Bumrah’s idiosyncratic style, which was honed in his childhood while practising in a small car park near his family’s apartment in the city of Ahmedabad.

“If you haven’t faced him before, it can really unsettle you,” Hazlewood said.

“He lets the ball go way out in front, so he’s pretty much half a yard quicker than what the actual speed gun says.

“He’s like a slingshot loading up and letting go.”

Bumrah’s match haul in Perth had some pundits questioning the legality of his deliveries, which appear to be bowled with a bent elbow.

Australian great and former India coach Greg Chappell soon jumped to Bumrah’s defence, describing the debate as “nonsense” and deeming Bumrah’s action “unequivocally clean”.

Bumrah has had his share of struggles and only came back into the India team last year after a serious back injury that kept him out of action in 2022 and 2023.

He played a key part in India’s June T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados, where he was instrumental in preventing South Africa scoring 30 runs off the last 30 balls to win the final, a performance dubbed a “masterclass” by Rohit.

The seeds of his greatness were sown at his Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, where he has been a fixture for more than a decade.

Former New Zealand batsman John Wright scouted the pace bowler from his home state of Gujarat and brought him to Mumbai in 2013, when the Indians won the first of their five IPL titles.

Bumrah made an instant impact by dismissing Bengaluru’s star batsman Virat Kohli in his first match.

Head, who fell to Bumrah in the second innings at Perth, said he loved trying to solve the conundrum that is the enigmatic bowler.

“It’s going to be nice to look back at your career and tell the grandkids that you faced him,” he said.

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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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