Ravindra Jadeja Joins Ashwin As World’s Number One Test Bowler

One day after the 75-run turnaround victory in the Bangalore Test to tie the series and the Indian team has more reasons to celebrate.

Ravindra Jadeja has joined Ravichandran Ashwin as the number one bowler in Tests. This is, in fact, the first time in history that two spinners are sharing the top spot in the ICC Rankings. Both bowlers currently have 892 points.

(Read: In Stats: The Evolution of Ravindra Jadeja Into a Test Cricketer)

This is also the first time that Jadeja has climbed the summit in the Test format.

The younger of the Indian spin-duo scalped a total of seven wickets, including a haul of 6/63 in the first innings of the Bangalore Test. In the first Test in Pune, he picked up a total of 5 Australian wickets.

April 2008 was the last time the two bowlers found themselves sharing the number one spot in the Test rankings, with pacer Dale Steyn and spinner Muttiah Muralidaran sharing the honour.

Australia spinner Nathan Lyon's eight wickets in the match helped lift him up by two places to the 16th rank. His team's left-arm spinner, Steve O'Keefe, and India pace bowler, Umesh Yadav, have gained one place each to reach their career-best 28th and 29th ranks, respectively.

ICC Batsmen Rankings

Among batsmen, India captain Virat Kohli has conceded the second rank to England's Joe Root, after managing only 40 runs in two Tests. Root is now one point ahead of Kohli at 848 points.

Cheteshwar Pujara's innings of 17 and 92 have lifted him up five places to the sixth rank, while Ajinkya Rahane has moved up two places to the 15th rank after scoring 17 and 52 in Bangalore.

Lokesh Rahul, the man of the match in Bangalore, gained 23 places to reach the 23rd spot after scores of 90 and 51.

Australia captain Steve Smith has maintained his reign at the top for 77 Tests, going past Ricky Ponting's 76 matches. He now has the third-longest stint at the top among Australians, after Steve Waugh (94) and Don Bradman (93). His teammate Matt Renshaw gained six places to reach a career-best 28th rank with knocks of 60 and five.

All-Rounders & Perks For India

The list of all-rounders saw a change at the top as Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan moved ahead of Ashwin, who has scored only 20 runs in four innings against Australia so far. Ashwin overtook Shakib in December 2015.

The victory in Bangalore also helped India retain its number one position in the ICC Test rankings. Kohli's men will now receive a cash prize of USD 1 million.

"Victory in the 2nd Test against Australia assures India a No 1 finish on the 1 April cut-off date and a cash prize of USD 1 million," the ICC confirmed in a tweet.