Virat Kohli closes gap on Steve Smith, three Indians in top-5 of batting rankings in Tests
ICC Test Rankings: India captain Virat Kohli’s historic ton in the pink ball Test against Bangladesh helped him close the gap on Australia’s Steve Smith in the Test ranking for batsmen while India opener Mayank Agarwal broke into the top 10 for the first time.
Virat Kohli is slowly inching towards the top spot in the ICC Test batsmen rankings after his impressive century against Bangladesh in the pink ball Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kohli has narrowed the gap between himself and Steve Smith from 25 points to just three points. There are three Indians in the top five of the rankings with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane joining Kohli on the list.
There is a new entry in the top 10 of the list with Indian opener Mayank Agarwal grabbing the tenth spot in the rankings after his double century in the Bangladesh series.
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In the bowler’s department, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav reached their career-high points tally with five-wicket hauls in the day/night Test in Kolkata. Ishant has achieved 716 points and occupies 17th spot in the rankings while Umesh moved up to 21.
Jasprit Bumrah is still the highest-ranked Indian in the rankings despite not playing any part in India’s last two Test series. Bumrah drops down to fourth with Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami on ninth and eleventh place respectively. Ravindra Jadeja is at 15th place. Australia’s Pat Cummins occupies top spot with 907 points, followed by Kagiso Rabada and Neil Wagner.
India defeated Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs in the pink ball Test while winning the first Test by an innings and 130 runs as they extended their lead at the top of the ICC World Test Championship rankings with 360 points.
The Indian fast bowlers bowled Bangladesh out inside 30.3 overs on Day 1 and on Day 3, it took them just 47 minutes to claim the remaining 4 wickets and wrap up the Test match. Bangladesh lasted all of 71.4 overs in the day/night Test.
Such has been the domination of the seamers that they are creating new records with literally all their spells. As a unit, they average 15.16 and this is the best for any team in any calendar year in the last 67 years. Not only this, this figure is the best collective pace bowling average for India in any calendar year in their Test history.
