Photo Credit: Cricket West Indies
Captains Jason Holder of the West Indies and Ben Stokes of England head into the opening match of their three-Test series as the top two all-rounders in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings, as well as the top-ranked batsmen from their respective sides.
- They are the top two all-rounders in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings and also the top-ranked batsmen from their respective sides going into the Southampton Test
- Chance for England to move up in the ICC World Test Championship while the West Indies look for opening points
Holder, only the second West Indies player after Sir Garry Sobers to hold the top spot among Test all-rounders, has a career best 473 points going into the Southampton Test. The 28-year-old from Barbados has been at the top since January 2019.
Stokes, who is skipper for the opening match as Joe Root will be away for the birth of his second child, is on 407 points. Stokes would be looking to work his way up in the points aggregate during the series and emulate compatriot Andrew Flintoff, the last England player at the top of the Test all-rounders’ list, in May 2006.
Holder is in 35th position among batsmen with Shane Dowrich, Roston Chase and Kraigg Brathwaite ranked from 44th to 52nd places. Shai Hope, currently in 64th position, would be hoping to move up by striking the kind of form that saw him score twin centuries to win the Leeds Test three years ago. Holder is also their leading bowler, in third position, with fast bowlers Kemar Roach (11th) and Shannon Gabriel (19th) others in the top 20.
Tenth-ranked Stokes is England’s leading batsman in the absence of Root, while their next highest ranked batsman is Rory Burns in 33rd position – back after injuring himself playing football. Formerly top-ranked James Anderson leads the bowlers in eighth position with Chris Woakes (23rd) and Stokes (26th) just outside the top 20.
ICC World Test Championship: England, currently on 146 points, would be aiming to overtake New Zealand (180) to third position in the ICC World Test Championship points table while the West Indies would be hoping to garner their opening points having previously lost 2-0 to table leaders India. England drew a five-Test series 2-2 against Australia and won a four-match series 3-1 against South Africa.
Each series of the WTC is worth 120 points, distributed evenly over the number of matches in a series. The points range from 60 points for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series. The top two teams at the end of the league will play the final to decide the champion.
MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 6 July, before the England-West Indies series):
Batsmen (top 10)
| Rank(+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | Steve Smith | Aus | 911 | 62.84 | 947 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 2 | Virat Kohli | Ind | 886 | 53.62 | 937 v Eng at Southampton 2018 |
| 3 | Marnus Labuschagne | Aus | 827*! | 63.43 | 827 v NZ at Sydney 2020 |
| 4 | Kane Williamson | NZ | 813 | 50.99 | 915 v Ban at Hamilton 2019 |
| 5 | Babar Azam | Pak | 800! | 45.12 | 800 v Ban at Rawalpindi 2020 |
| 6 | David Warner | Aus | 793 | 48.94 | 880 v NZ at Perth 2015 |
| 7 | Cheteshwar Pujara | Ind | 766 | 48.66 | 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017 |
| 8 | Joe Root | Eng | 764 | 48.40 | 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015 |
| 9 | Ajinkya Rahane | Ind | 726 | 42.88 | 825 v NZ at Indore 2016 |
| 10 | Ben Stokes | Eng | 718 | 36.54 | 745 v SA at Port Elizabeth 2020 |
Other selected rankings
| Rank(+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 33 | Rory Burns | Eng | 579* | 33.75 | 597 v SA at Centurion 2019 |
| 35 | Jason Holder | WI | 570 | 32.72 | 581 v Eng at Barbados 2019 |
| 42 | Joe Denly | Eng | 550* | 30.00 | 578 v SA at Cape Town 2020 |
| 44 | Shane Dowrich | WI | 544! | 30.08 | 544 v Afg at Lucknow 2019 |
| 48= | Jonny Bairstow | Eng | 516 | 34.74 | 772 v SA at Old Trafford 2017 |
| Roston Chase | WI | 516 | 31.38 | 626 v Pak at Dominica 2017 | |
| 52 | Kraigg Brathwaite | WI | 508 | 33.29 | 701 v Eng at Headingley 2017 |
| 64 | Shai Hope | WI | 479 | 27.23 | 653 v Zim at Bulawayo 2017 |
Bowlers (top 10)
| Rank(+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | Pat Cummins | Aus | 904 | 21.82 | 914 v Eng at Old Trafford 2019 |
| 2 | Neil Wagner | NZ | 843 | 26.60 | 859 v Aus at Melbourne 2019 |
| 3 | Jason Holder | WI | 830! | 26.37 | 830 v Afg at Lucknow 2019 |
| 4 | Tim Southee | NZ | 812! | 29.00 | 812 v India at Christchurch 2020 |
| 5 | Kagiso Rabada | SA | 802 | 22.95 | 902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018 |
| 6 | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 796 | 26.97 | 806 v NZ at Perth 2019 |
| 7 | Jasprit Bumrah | Ind | 779* | 20.33 | 835 v WI at Jamaica 2019 |
| 8 | James Anderson | Eng | 775 | 26.83 | 903 v India at Lord’s 2018 |
| 9 | Trent Boult | NZ | 770 | 27.65 | 825 v Eng at Lord’s 2015 |
| 10 | Josh Hazlewood | Aus | 769 | 26.20 | 863 v India at Bengaluru 2017 |
Other selected rankings
| Rank(+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 11(-1) | Kemar Roach | WI | 763 | 27.13 | 780 v India at Jamaica 2019 |
| 13(-1) | Stuart Broad | Eng | 753 | 28.50 | 880 v SA at Johannesburg 2016 |
| 19(-) | S Gabriel | WI | 673 | 30.63 | 757 v Ban at Jamaica 2018 |
| 23(-) | Chris Woakes | Eng | 594* | 30.88 | 609 v Pak at The Oval 2016 |
| 26(-) | Ben Stokes | Eng | 567 | 32.68 | 606 v WI at St Lucia 2019 |
| 27= | Moeen Ali | Eng | 548 | 36.59 | 633 v WI at Edgbaston 2017 |
| 36(-) | Mark Wood | Eng | 439*! | 31.41 | 439 v SA at Johannesburg 2020 |
| 37= | Jofra Archer | Eng | 410* | 27.40 | 465 v Aus at The Oval 2019 |
| 39= | Sam Curran | Eng | 394* | 31.70 | 409 v SA at Cape Town 2020 |
| Jack Leach | Eng | 394* | 29.02 | 450 v Aus at The Oval 2019 | |
| 41(-) | Rahkeem Cornwall | WI | 364*! | 22.61 | 364 v Afg at Lucknow 2019 |
All-rounders (top five)
| Rank(+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Highest Rating |
| 1 | Jason Holder | WI | 473! | 473 v Afg at Lucknow 2019 |
| 2 | Ben Stokes | Eng | 407 | 411 v SA at Port Elizabeth 2020 |
| 3 | R Jadeja | Ind | 397 | 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017 |
| 4 | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 298 | 346 v India at Pune 2017 |
| 5 | R Ashwin | Ind | 282 | 492 v Eng at Mohali 2016 |
Name of Author: ICC
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body for cricket, founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference. Renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, it became the ICC in 1987. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, the ICC has 108 member nations.
