'How? I have not played since August' - Stuart Broad hilariously reacts on reclaiming No.2 spot in Test rankings

England’s right-arm pacer Stuart Broad progressed one place to recapture the second position among bowlers in the latest ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings. The International Cricket Council updated the Test rankings on December 15, Tuesday in which Broad replaced New Zealand’s Neil Wagner.

However, Broad hasn’t featured in a Test game for England since August 2020, his last outing came against Pakistan, while Wagner was involved in a two-match Test series against West Indies where he had put up a decent show. In the first Test against West Indies, New Zealand’s left-arm seamer managed to scalp 2 wickets in the first innings while he ended the second innings with 4 wickets.

Meanwhile, in the second game too against the Caribbean nation, Neil picked up 3 wickets across two innings. This had resulted in the Black Caps winning both the games by an innings and 134 runs and an innings and 12 runs respectively. Thus, this new change in the ICC rankings surprised Stuart Broad and he commented regarding the same on ICC’s official Instagram handle.

 

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New ICC Test Rankings leaves Stuart Broad confused

Replying to ICC’s post regarding the change in Test bowling rankings, Stuart wrote, “How? I have not played since August.”

Notably, Broad also climbed up a rank in ICC’s Test all-rounders rankings as he occupied 10th position with 222 points to his name. Apart from Stuart, England’s Chris Woakes also jumped to the seventh position from eight position in the all-rounders’ list with 269 points under his belt.

In July, after a decent run in the Test series between England and West Indies in England, Broad had registered himself as the second England player to reach the remarkable milestone of scalping 500 wickets after James Anderson in the purest format of the game.

He had become the seventh bowler to surpass the tally of 500 Test wickets after Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708), Anil Kumble (619), James Anderson (589), Glenn McGrath (563), and Courtney Walsh (519). Also, he had reached the milestone in his 14th year of Test cricket.

In 143 Tests, the 34-year-old has scalped 514 wickets at an economy rate of 2.94 and an average of 27.6. He also has 3335 runs to his name with the willow with an average of 19.1.