Kane Williamson, who displaced Steve Smith from the top of the ICC Test Rankings for Batsmen, expressed the usual humble side of his character. He called himself fortunate” to play against Smith and Virat Kohli – the number two batsman in the Test Rankings.

The New Zealand skipper further said that his ranking was reflection of the fact that he was just trying to the best for his side. New Zealand became the number one Test team for the first time after beating Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series on Wednesday.

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Williamson scored 129 in the first innings of the Bay Oval Test against Pakistan. “It’s about trying to do as much as you can for the team. If you can contribute as much as you can and it can be reflected on the rankings, that’s really cool,” Williamson said in a video posted on ICC’s official Twitter handle.

“Those two (Virat Kohli and Steve Smith) players are the best. For me, sneak up someone is very surprising and humbling. Those are the two players year and year out in all formats moving the game forward, very fortunate to play against these guys,” the Kiwi said.

“It was a great game to be involved in. We seem to have many tight finishes against Pakistan. The last three have gone to the last 25 minutes of the last day. Both teams fought incredibly hard. I think we had moments although the resistance put up by Pakistan on the last day was incredibly strong. It is really exciting to cross the line and hunt for an opportunity for the World Test Championship,” he added.

Williamson jumped two places to end 2020 as the world’s top-ranked batsman even as Steve Smith slipped two places to third after failures in the first two Tests against India. Kohli, on paternity leave in India, retained his second spot.

This is the first time the Kiwi skipper has moved to the top of the world Test batting rankings since 2015. Smith and Kohli have occupied the top spot over the last five years.

Williamson has 890 rating points while Kohli (879) and Smith (877) are separated by a margin of just two points.

Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne (No. 4) and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam (No. 5) round up the top five.