West Indies skipper Jason Holder on Tuesday achieved a major milestone in his cricket career as he reached a career-best second place in the ICC Test Player Rankings, released by the apex cricket body on Wednesday. The Windies skipper leapfrogged to the second position after leading his team to a historic win over England at the 3-Test match series opener Southampton.


Holder who contributed significantly with the bowl by picking up six wickets in the Windies' 4-wicket win over host England at Southampton,  attained the highest rating points by any West Indies bowler in 20 years since Windies seam bowling legend Courtney Walsh's tally of 866 way back in 2020.


Indian cricketers, who are yet to get back to action since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have retained their positions in the top-10 of batsmen and bowlers rankings.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli continues to occupy the second spot among Test batsmen, only behind Australian batting mainstay Steve Smith, while leading Indian test batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane remain seventh and ninth respectively. Jasprit Bumrah is the only Indian bowler in the top-10 at seventh spot.

Holder who retained 35th position among batsmen after the series opener at the Ageas Bowl also reached a career-best tally of 485 points at the top of the all-rounders’ list.

The competition at the top promises to gain momentum as number-two Ben Stokes has also made huge gains to attain a career-best tally of 431 points, narrowing the lead from 66 to 54 points.