Calcutta: Following his top showing in the Test series against New Zealand, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has surged to the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers.

Ashwin finished with a career-best haul of 13/140 in the final Test that helped India defeat New Zealand by a massive 321 runs, their second biggest victory in terms of runs.

Ashwin, who was named Man of the Series after he finished with 27 wickets, now has 220 wickets - the most by any bowler after 39 Tests.

The off-spinner from Tamil Nadu has been a trusted match-winner for India at home. He becomes almost unplayable on subcontinent pitches and more often than not returns with a bagful of wickets.

Even in this series Ashwin's statistics have been awesome. With three five-wicket hauls, two 10-wicket match hauls, another Man of the Series award Ashwin must be happy man. And now that he is the No.1 bowler in the world, it turned out to be an immensely profitable series for him.

Fact is Ashwin has now been the best player in four series in a row, overall it's his seventh in a total of 14 series.

Against New Zealand he exploited the conditions perfectly, often giving the batsman no breathing space. His accuracy and guile have been exemplary.

And not just with the ball, Ashwin also scored an invaluable 40 and 26 when India were in trouble in the first innings of the first two Tests.

Ranked third before the final Test in Indore, Ashwin has leapfrogged pace bowlers James Anderson and Dale Steyn to attain a career-best rating of 900 points.

Ashwin, who finished the 2015 year-end rankings as the No.1 bowler and was also at the top briefly in July this year, has joined a select band to have touched a rating of 900 points since 2000, the others being Muttiah Muralidharan, Glenn McGrath, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Shaun Pollock.

In the rankings for Test batsmen led by Australia captain Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane has attained a career-best sixth rank with scores of 188 and 23 not out. Rahane, whose previous best was an eighth rank in August this year, has gained five slots after starting the match at the 11th position.

The Indore Test also saw Cheteshwar Pujara and India Test captain Virat Kohli move up the rankings. Pujara moved up one place to be at the 14th place, while Kohli has climbed four places to be at the 16th position.

In the all-rounders' list, India's Ravindra Jadeja has reached a career-best joint-third rank.

Meanwhile, Pakistan hosts the West Indies in a three-Test series in the UAE, which starts with a day-night match in Dubai on Thursday.

Pakistan would be eyeing the opportunity to move up the rankings even though the team does not have a chance to reclaim the No.1 ranking from India even with a 3-0 win.

Fourth-ranked Younis Khan, who is just two points behind South Africa batsman Hashim Amla's tally of 847 points, will miss the opening Test because of illness but 11th-ranked Misbah has a chance to overtake England batsman Alastair Cook, whom he trails by just six points.

Asad Shafiq (13th), Azhar Ali (17th) and Sarfraz Ahmed (19th) would also be looking to move towards the top 10 by dominating a side they blanked 3-0 in both an ODI series as well as a Twenty20 series that preceded the Tests.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who is just five wickets away from 100 wickets and a permanent ranking, is Pakistan's leading bowler at sixth position while pace bowler Wahab Riaz is ranked 29th.

For Windies, Darren Bravo (28th), Kraigg Brathwaite (31st) and Marlon Samuels (46th) are the leading batsmen.