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Steve Smith beats Kohli on ICC Test Rankings to number two, behind Kane Williamson on top


Australia’s star batsman Steve Smith has tipped Indian captain Virat Kohli to be second on the ICC Rankings for batsmen in Tests on the back of a superlative century in the Sydney Test against India. Smith was battling with bad form and had failed in the three innings of the first two Tests of the series, but his century helped Australia gain the ascendency in the game. Smith has gone up to 900 points while Kohli who has returned home for the birth of his first child is at 870 rating points.

Smith’s fellow teammate Marnus Labuschagne consolidated his ranking at the number four position with his highest best career rating points at 866 on the back of scores of 91 and 73 in the two innings of the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) Test.

For India, Cheteshwar Pujara played a crucial role in helping India draw the SCG Test with fifties in both the innings of the Test match, and his exploits with the bat helped him jump two ranks to the eighth position on the table.

On the other hand, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson consolidated his domination on the ranking table with a jump to his career-best rating point - the best for any Kiwi batsmen - at 919. Williamson had been in sublime form in the home season against West Indies and Pakistan and plundered two double centuries against them over the course of the two-match Test series.

Another Kiwi batsman who batted supremely against Pakistan in the last Test match of the series in Christchurch, Henry Nicholls, has broken into the top-10 batsmen of the Test format. He stands at the ninth position with 747 points to his name.

For bowlers, Pat Cummins has consolidated his top position in the ICC player rankings for bowlers in Tests while Josh Hazlewood has jumped three places to fifth position on the table. Mitchell Starc looked off-colour and could get only one wicket across the two innings of the SCG Test and slid three places to number eight on the table. 

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah too lost some of their gains and slid two and one places respectively in the latest changes announced by the ICC in the players’ rankings.



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