ICC Rankings: Kohli's reign continues, Labusheen at number three

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Indian captain Virat Kohli retained his reign in the latest ICC Test rankings of batsmen released on Wednesday, while Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have slipped.

Indian captain Virat Kohli retained his reign in the latest ICC Test rankings of batsmen released on Wednesday, while Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have slipped. The ICC said in a statement that Kohli is ahead of second-placed Australian Steve Smith (911) with 928 points.

Pujara slipped one place to sixth place with 791 points while Rahane moved two places to the ninth position with 759 points. Among the bowlers, Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who returned from injury, retained the sixth position with 794 points, while spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (772 points) and fast bowler Mohammed Shami (771 points) are ranked ninth and 10th respectively.

Marnus Labuschen benefited

Australia’s Marnus Labuschen secured his career-best third place. The 25-year-old had scored 215 and 59 in the final Test against New Zealand and was the top scorer by scoring 549 runs in the recently concluded series.

Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins leads the table with 904 points ahead of Neil Wagner (852 points) and West Indies’ Jason Holder (830 points). Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc captured his previous career-best fifth ranking achieved in March 2018. He took 15 wickets in the series against New Zealand.

Ben Stokes in Top 10

Spinner Nathan Lyon managed to gain five places with the help of 10 wickets and reached the joint 14th position. For New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhom moved from 47th to 39th in the list of batsmen and 36th to 34th in the list of bowlers.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes entered the top 10 batsmen for the second time in his career. He rose from 15th to 10th position, though he achieved his best ninth ranking in November last year. Dom Sibley jumped 87 places thanks to his first Test century, which made him reach number 80. At the same time, fast bowler James Anderson was successful in making the top 10 again in the list of bowlers with a record of five wickets for the 28th time.