Indian skipper Virat Kohli finished as number one ranked Test batsman in the world in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) player ranking after the recently concluded five-match Test series between India and England.
Virat Kohli scored 593 runs at an average of 59.3 in the England series which India lost 1-4. Before the start of the series, Virat Kohli was 27 points behind former Australia skipper Steve Smith and the 29-year-old captain finished the series with one point ahead of his closest rival.
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Virat Kohli attained the top spot in ICC test ranking after the Edgbaston Test but in the second Test, he lost it to Steve Smith. Kohli regained the top spot after the Trent Bridge Test. He will now defend his number-one ranking in the two-Test home series against the West Indies, which starts on October 4.
India’s Lokesh Rahul and Rishabh Pant also made big gains in the latest rankings with the opener advancing 16 places to 19th position after his knock of 149. Pant also moved up 63 places to 111th position after his 114 in only his third Test match. Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 86 in the first innings has helped him gain 12 places to reach 58th among batsmen while he has also moved up one place in the all-rounder’s list to second position.
Among others, England opener Alastair Cook said good bye to international Test cricket on a remarkable note, moving into the top-10 of the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen after a Player of the Match performance in the final Test at the Oval. The left-hander’s scores of 71 and 147 made him only the fifth man in history to notch a century in his first and last Test matches. His ton also helped England win by 118 runs to complete a 4-1 win in the five-match series. This memorable performance lifted the 33-year-old 11 positions to 10th in the latest rankings, which were released on Wednesday morning. Cook had achieved a career-high ranking of second in September 2011 after he had scored a Test best 294 against India at Edgbaston. This was the same year when Cook won the prestigious ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award.
The former England captain has ended an impressive career with the third-best ranking for a retiring England batsman after Wally Hammond (fifth) and Geoff Boycott (eighth). However, he finished on a higher position than any of the batsmen who scored more runs than him in the pinnacle format. Jacques Kallis hung his boots in 12th position, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid both ended their careers in 18th spot and Ricky Ponting finished in 26th place. Apart from winning the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award in 2011, Cook was named in the ICC Test Team of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 (as captain). He also made his way in the ICC ODI Team of the Year in 2012, the year in which he reached his career-best fifth position in ODIs during the month of June.
In other movements among the batsmen, captain Joe Root has moved up one place to fourth position after a fine knock of 125 in the second innings while other England batsmen to gain in the rankings include Jos Buttler (up nine places to 23rd) and Moeen Ali (up five places to 43rd). In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, England fast bowler James Anderson started and finished the series in number-one ranking. After the Lord’s Test, Anderson reached a career-high 903 points. He had started he series with 892 points and finished just one point shy of the coveted 900-point mark. Other bowlers to make an upward movement after The Oval Test include Ben Stokes (up one place to 27th), Adil Rashid (up six places to 44th) and Sam Curran (up four places to 51st) all advancing after taking three wickets each.
Here are the complete rankings:
Batting
1- Virat Kohli
2- Steve Smith
3- Kane Williamson
4- Joe Root
5- David Warner
6- Cheteshwar Pujara
7 -Dimuth Kanuratne
8- Dinesh Chandimal
9- Dean Elgar
10- Alastair Cook
Bowling
1- James Anderson
2- Kagiso Rabada
3- Vernon Philander
4- Ravindra Jadeja
5- Pat Cummins
6- Trent Boult
7- Rangana Herath
8- Ravichandran Ashwin
9- Neil Wagner
10- Josh Hazlewood
-With PTI inputs.