Indian pace bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah made history today, achieving the joint-highest rating points ever by an Indian Test bowler.
Bumrah, who finished with a match-haul of nine for 94, in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, which is part of the ICC World Test Championship, added 14 points to his tally, taking it up to 904.
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India's star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently retired from international cricket, had reached the milestone in December 2016 after the fourth Test against England in Mumbai.
Bumrah, who has taken 21 wickets so far in the series, has a healthy lead of 48 rating points, over his closest competitor Kagiso Rabada (856) of South Africa. Josh Hazlewood (852) of Australia is third in the list.
Mohammad Siraj climbed to the 24th position.
Travis Head, who has been in solid form in the India-Australia series, overtook India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal to take the fourth position in the list. While England's Joe Root leads the list, Aussie batter Steve Smith clawed back into the top 10 after scoring 101 in the first innings against India. Alex Carey’s scores of 70 and 20 not out brought him to 29th position. India’s KL Rahul has jumped 10 spots to 40th, while Ravindra Jadeja progressed nine spots to 42nd.
India's batting blues
With the series tied 1-1 after three Tests, all eyes are now on the Boxing Day match in Melbourne tomorrow. While Bumrah has been the star for India in the series so far, with other bowlers doing well in sessions, the visiting team's batting has been the weak link so far.
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Out-of-form India skipper Rohit Sharma might choose to open the innings, though it would mean pushing Rahul, who has been the only batter to show some consistency, down the batting order. Sharma failed to hold the innings together in the middle-order in Adelaide and Brisbane.
With Jaiswal and Sharma opening, Rahul might come in at number 3, and Shubman Gill play in the middle-order or make way for the promising Dhruv Jurel. Virat Kohli, too, is struggling, and that does not augur well for the Indian middle-order.
The lower middle-order comprising Rishabh Pant, Nitish Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja, and the tail, have shown some fight but India will need the big guns at the top to fire to take an important lead in the five-match series.
