India’s top off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin retained his top spot in the bowlers’ list in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings released on Wednesday while England’s Joe Root overtook Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne to become the world’s number one batsman.
Jasprit Bumrah eighth and Ravindra Jadeja ninth
Ashwin, who failed to make it to India’s playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, remains the world’s number one bowler with 860 points. He is followed by England’s James Anderson with 829 points. Among Indian bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah (772) and Ravindra Jadeja (765) remained static at eighth and ninth positions respectively.
Star batsman Virat Kohli at 14th position
India’s star batsman Virat Kohli has slipped a place to 14th position while skipper Rohit Sharma is in 12th position. Cheteshwar Pujara remained static at 25th position while Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer have moved up one place each to be at 36th and 37th position respectively.
Rishabh Pant is the only Indian batsman in the top 10
Wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant is the only Indian batsman in the top 10. He is at 10th position. In the batsmen’s rankings, Root jumped five places to become the number one batsman, overtaking Labushen. The change in rankings comes a day after Australia beat England by two wickets in a thrilling first Test at Edgbaston to take a 1-0 lead in the five-Test Ashes.
Root became number one batsman
Root scored 118 in England’s first innings and 46 in the second while Labushen failed to make an impression with the bat in both the innings. Labushen, who scored zero and 13 against England, slipped to third place. New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson has gained two places to reach the second spot.
Only 26 rating points difference between top six batsmen
Australia’s Travis Head (down one place to fourth) and Steve Smith (down four places to sixth) have also lost ground in the race to become the number one Test batsman. However, there is only a difference of 26 rating points between the top six batsmen. Among bowlers, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada is third with 825 points ahead of Australia captain Pat Cummins (824).
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