Big news coming out of the Ashes series! Both Harry Brook and Mitchell Starc have made significant jumps in the latest ICC Test Rankings. They’ve both climbed all the way up to the number two spot in their respective categories. This happened after a super quick, pretty wild Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The Boxing Day Test was a real whirlwind. It finished up in just two days. Pacers took all 36 wickets, which tells you a lot about the pitch. And England actually got a win! They snapped an 18-match winless streak in Australia. Their first Test win there since way back in 2010/11. What a game, honestly.
Brook’s Audacious Rise
Harry Brook, he’s a player, isn’t he? He moved up three places to number two in the Test batting rankings. He’s got 846 rating points now, chasing Joe Root for the top spot. NDTV Sports reported on his big move up the ladder.
Brook played a crucial knock of 41 runs off just 34 balls in that MCG Test. That was on a real bowling paradise pitch, too. He was also unbeaten with 18 runs to see out England’s chase. His batting style is, well, it’s something else. When England were 8-3 in their first innings, he walked out and charged Mitchell Starc first ball. It was pretty surreal, according to The Athletic.
Some people think it’s brave, some think it’s a bit mad. But it seems like it works for him. He’s known for “counter-punching” when early wickets fall. And the stats back him up. He’s made rapid centuries doing it his way before. He even hit Starc for a six really early in that innings. Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook was “bemused” by his audacity on TNT, you know?
Brook really is a rare talent. He reached 3,000 runs in his 57th innings. That’s quicker than nearly any other Englishman, besides Herbert Sutcliffe. He’s England’s white-ball captain and Ben Stokes’ deputy in Tests. So, clearly, he’s got a good cricket brain. He might thrill and exasperate fans, but his tactics usually pay off.
Starc’s Bowling Dominance
On the bowling side, Mitchell Starc also hit a career-best joint-second rank. He’s level with Pakistan’s Noman Ali now, with 843 rating points. Starc picked up four wickets in the MCG match. He’s been absolutely exceptional this whole series. He’s got 26 scalps across four matches, averaging just 17.42. His best figures were 7/58. Pretty impressive stuff.
And he wasn’t the only Aussie bowler making waves. Scott Boland, the local hero, jumped two spots to seventh. That’s a new career high for him too, with 810 rating points. He got five wickets in the match. NDTV Sports also highlighted Boland’s strong performance.
England’s Historic Two-Day Triumph
The match itself was crazy. That MCG pitch had 10 millimetres of grass left by the curator. It provided so much seam movement. Both teams struggled to bat. England got bowled out for 110 in their first innings. Australia, in essence, said “anything you can do, we can do better” on day one. But England fought back.
The runs were really hard to come by, for sure. But England’s bowlers were up to the task. Josh Tongue, who was the ‘Player of the Match’, made a huge climb in the rankings too. He went up 13 spots to number 30. He took five wickets in the first innings and another two in the second. That was England’s first five-wicket haul in a Boxing Day Test at Melbourne in the 21st century! Gus Atkinson also did great, taking three wickets and scoring 28 runs. He moved up to eighth in the all-rounder rankings. Even Brydon Carse, with five wickets, rose six spots to 23rd.
It was a proper Test match, even if it was short. And a really important win for England in Australia. And Joe Root, who Brook is chasing for the top spot, is still a legendary presence in the Ashes, as fans would know from BBC Sport’s coverage of his earlier performances.
So, a memorable game all around. Especially for Harry Brook and Mitchell Starc, who now find themselves right up there in the world rankings.
Sagnik Banerjee 
Ishaan Singh 
Govind Singh