Australian batting sensation Steve Smith has reclaimed his No.1 Test batsman spot from New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, this was the first time since the boxing day test last year that Steve Smith has been on the top of test batsman rankings.
Williamson, who will be leading New Zealand in WTC finals against India overtook Smith and Virat Kohli last year in December to become the top-ranked Test batsman in ICC rankings. However, Williamson slipped 5 points and is now behind Steve Smith’s 891 rating points after missing the second Test against England.
Steve Smith has been at the top for 167 Tests played worldwide in total, only behind Garry Sobers (189 matches) and Viv Richards (179 matches).
Skipper Virat Kohli will be leading India in the WTC finals, he climbed to the fourth spot with 814 rating points. Giving company to Captain Kohli in the top 10 rankings Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and Opener Rohit Sharma retained their joint no. 6 positions with 747 rating points. This makes a total of 3 Indian batsmen in the Top 10 rankings.
Quinton de Kock has gained 11 positions to become the joint No.12 ranked batsman alongside Cheteshwar Pujara. Also, South African Adrian Markram has progressed two slots to reach the 14th position.
In the Test bowling rankings, Aussie pacer Pat Cummins continues to dominate with the top spot in the rankings with 908 points followed by Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who has 850 rating points.
The South African pace battery has been doing very well in rankings after performing well against West Indies, Kagiso Rabada has gained 2 spots to reach 7th place, Anrich Nortje has entered into the top 30 for the first time and Lungi Ngidi is up 14 places to 44th spot.
Matt Henry’s man of the match performance against England has raised him to a career-best 307 points and 64th position while his comrade Ajaz Patel is at a career-high 323 points tally.
The all-rounder section of MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test All Rounder Rankings remains unchanged as Jason holder retained the number one spot with 412 rating points followed by Ravindra Jadeja (386 points ), Ben Stokes ( 377 points ), and Ravichandran Ashwin ( 353 points).
Here are the ICC Rankings:
