• England paceman is top of rankings after demolition of South Africa • Bowler says he is not as good as Jimmy Anderson or Dale Steyn

Stuart Broad has looked to play down his newly acquired status as the world’s No1 bowler in Test cricket, believing Jimmy Anderson still to be England’s greatest and Dale Steyn of South Africa the standout among the current generation.

In leading Alastair Cook’s tourists to a famous series victory on Saturday with a six-wicket burst in the third Test at The Wanderers Broad became only the second Englishman since Ian Botham 35 years ago to top the official ICC rankings, with Steve Harmison the other in 2004.

The 29-year-old, whose six for 17 paved the way for England take a 2-0 series lead with one Test to play, replaced Ravichandran Ashwin at the summit when the revised rankings were announced on Sunday; the Indian spinner had spent just over two weeks there after ending a near six-year spell of dominance by Steyn.

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“When you consider that only Beefy in the 1980s and Harmy in 2004 have been No1 as English bowlers, it is a lovely achievement,” said Broad. “It is not something to take for granted and it is a very special thing to have happened. It might sound odd but I’m not the best. Steyn is the bowler of our generation. You only have a look at his record, his wickets, his strike-rate, his average; he is the best bowler in the world.

“I’ve been very privileged to play with Jimmy for a long time and he is certainly the best bowler England have ever had in my view. I didn’t see Fred Trueman and didn’t watch much of Beefy live, so you have to judge it on who you’ve seen bowl.

“So I’m not going to walk away from this week thinking I’m a better bowler than Dale Steyn or Jimmy Anderson because that is not the case. But it is a nice feeling to have reached this mark through my performances.”

While Broad has been the leading Test wicket-taker over the past five years with 231 victims, his magnanimity is understandable, with Steyn, who has missed the past two matches with a shoulder injury, taking 406 wickets in 82 Tests compared with Broad’s 330 in 90.

Steyn’s bowling average of 22.53 and strike-rate of 41.7 are far superior while Broad remains behind both Botham, on 383, and Anderson, 429, in England’s list of all-time wicket-takers. It is his new-ball partner who must take some of the credit for his recent rise to the top, too.

Broad said: “We really are a partnership and we talk about it all the time. We’re very fortunate to have played the amount of cricket we have together. There have been times when we could have been cast aside by selectors without doubt, but we’ve been given opportunities to succeed and we’ve done that nicely.

“We suit each other’s style of bowling. We can be grumpy with each other, we can congratulate each other but we’re always even, there is never a battle between us to get wickets.

“People talk about cricket being an individual game but I really don’t agree; everything is done in a partnership. When Joe Root and Ben Stokes bat together, Stokes gets a bad ball because Root has seen off three good ones. Jimmy and I are the same. Generally the guy at the other end not getting the wickets is the one building the pressure and maybe even bowling better.”

By virtue of beating South Africa away, England will move to fifth in the world rankings when they are published after the fourth Test at Centurion that starts on Friday. It is this chart that Broad is more interested in. He added: “Getting to No1 in the bowling is not the end goal and it doesn’t feel like the biggest thing right now because there is so much more going on with the team. I’m not being aloof or disrespectful. There is such a determination in the side to get this team to No1.

“In saying that, when [head coach] Trevor Bayliss took over last summer, he did say that the only way to do that is for individual players to start climbing the rankings. We’ve had Rooty at No1 as a batsman recently, Jimmy and I have consistently been in the top five or six for a while now and Stokes is climbing highly in the all-rounders.

“There is such a goal for this team to become the best. We know it is still a way off just now, but give this team another year’s experience and then it really becomes an exciting time.”

Meanwhile Steyn’s absence from the series is set to continue, despite being named in a South Africa squad in which the struggling makeshift opener Stiaan van Zyl is replaced by the uncapped 33-year-old Stephen Cook.