Jansen’s Dual Peak, Abhishek’s Flash: An Unfinished Chapter in the Rankings Light

At my editing desk in Melbourne, I let the old footage run. The Gqeberha clip shows Marco Jansen walking out at No.8, the dressing-room light behind him, a soft shadow along the edge of his helmet. I raise the volume in my headphones. No crowd roar yet, only the tick of bat on ball and the rustle of the umpire’s jacket near the stumps. In that frame, Jansen made 85. Later, with the ball, he took 5/33 and Australia were bowled out for 99. Two roles in one match. I wrote in my notebook: Let the tape roll a little longer; the truth is still warming up.

Cut to Cape Town. The Test is still live, and the latest ICC update has already placed Jansen at No.1 among Test bowlers and No.1 among Test all-rounders. He climbed five places to 876 rating points. The base is concrete: 10 wickets and 146 runs in the first two Tests against Australia. In the same update, Temba Bavuma moved to No.2 among Test batters after his 179, while India’s Abhishek Sharma returned to No.1 among T20I batters after making 113 from 38 balls against New Zealand. His two previous innings were 29 and 27. Ishan Kishan could not play after the first match because of injury, and that gap sits inside the story of Abhishek’s return. In Cape Town, Mitchell Starc has already taken six wickets, so the thread holding Jansen’s crown is still trembling. For Bangladesh, Mushfiqur Rahim is 18th among Test batters, Taijul Islam 18th among Test bowlers, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz third among Test all-rounders.

I read this update the way I read Ninety Minutes of Memory: a reel of frames, with one or two frames that make the viewer pause. Jansen’s is one of them. An 85 from No.8 is more than a lower-order cameo; when a left-arm pace bowler shows both the edge of the new ball and the patience of the old one in the same Test, his place in the team plan changes. In a match where 5/33 helped skittle Australia for 99, Jansen became both batting depth and the centre of the bowling attack. The ICC all-rounder rating combines batting and bowling contributions, so his two-way work in one Test is a natural explanation for the jump. Jansen’s dual peak is no permanent crown; it is a snapshot written in the shadow of a Test still in progress.

My statistical habit says the box score should be read like a lyric sheet. A song’s words carry emotional weight; a scorecard carries the breath of an innings. The 876 points are one measure of that breath; 10 wickets and 146 runs are its body. The ICC’s rolling system moves points according to recent performance and opponent strength, which means one session in Cape Town can change the centre of the next update. Jansen has ended Ravindra Jadeja’s reign of more than four years at the top of the all-rounder table. That matters because Jadeja has been a benchmark of sustained output. Yet a two-Test sample cannot settle the case that Jansen is now the permanent best all-rounder in Test cricket. A ranking is weather, not climate; a No.1 spot is a picture of recent form, not a full certificate of a career.

Bavuma’s 179 pulls South Africa’s story in another direction. A captain at No.2 among Test batters means stability at the top of the order, at least within this series. Gqeberha and Cape Town are home venues. The update gives no detailed pitch report, so there is no honest way to assign a ratio to seam, bounce or spin. Still, home form does not automatically travel. Jansen’s workload is a quiet question too: as a left-arm pace all-rounder, he has to bowl long spells with the new ball and also score runs lower down. South Africa’s current peak is built on home pitches and two matches of form; the longer series will test it through workload and unfamiliar conditions.

Abhishek’s frame is brighter. A 113 from 38 balls, a strike rate near 297, moves a T20I ranking quickly. But the two innings before that were 29 and 27. One flash and sustained supremacy are different things. T20I batting rankings weigh strike rate and consistency, and a single explosion that is not repeated over the next few series can hand the top spot back. Ishan Kishan’s injury opened the path for Abhishek’s return; when Kishan is fit, India’s opening equation can shift again. India’s batting depth is so deep that one player’s rise or fall does not change the team’s overall strength; it is a signal about individual form. Abhishek’s No.1 is an advertisement for possibility, not proof of permanence; the next innings will show whether this was a flash or a new pattern.

Bangladesh’s picture is different. Mushfiqur at 18th, Taijul at 18th, Miraz at third: those numbers describe a narrow middle tier. No Bangladesh batter is in the top ten of Test batting. Miraz’s presence near the top five of the all-rounder table is a source of light, but reliance on a small core can lower the team’s ceiling. At the global top of ODI and T20I tables sit Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai, a reminder that the summit is shared among a few nations. Bangladesh’s question is not how to find a single No.1; it is how to produce more top-ten names. Bangladesh’s ranking story is about middle-tier depth, not a summit crown; without that depth, the ceiling in major tournaments stays low.

The easy story says Jansen has become Test cricket’s best bowler and best all-rounder. The easy story is part of the truth, not the whole of it. The Cape Town Test is still running, Starc’s six wickets have already tightened the table, and a change at the top in the next update would give today’s headline a different meaning in tomorrow’s archive. My archive habit says collective memory remembers the crown quickly and forgets the frame in which the crown was hung. The same applies to Abhishek: the “return to No.1” story can hide the gap created by Kishan’s injury. Today’s headline may age out by the next update; that uncertainty is the most honest part of the news. This is no attempt to diminish anyone. It is an attempt to see the distance between the immediacy of a ranking and the longer truth of the game.

Three things are worth watching in the next ICC update. The Cape Town result and Jansen’s second-innings contribution will decide whether his top spot holds; Starc’s wicket count can change the heading of the next bowling table. If Abhishek keeps scoring 50-plus or maintains a 150-plus strike rate through the rest of the New Zealand T20Is, his No.1 will look more credible. For Bangladesh, seeing Mushfiqur, Taijul, Miraz or Tanzid enter a top ten would signal more than a ranking move; it would suggest a higher team ceiling. Those three trackers will shape the next frame.

Cape Town still has a frame left. The scoreboard light will go off, Starc’s ball-track will fade, and Jansen’s 876 points may settle at a new number. One question will remain: will we remember the crown, or the frame from which it hung? Ninety Minutes of Memory taught me that the real story often sits outside the last frame, in the sound the room makes before the roar. Wait for the next update; let the tape roll a little longer.