Virat Kohli Bridges Gap With Steve Smith In The Latest ICC Test Rankings

Team India skipper Virat Kohli played a fine knock as they routed Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs in the historic day-night Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kohli brought his 27th Test century which saw him bridge the gap with Australia’s Steve Smith, who holds the top spot in the latest released MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen.

Virat Kohli played an outstanding knock of 136 runs including 18 boundaries which helped him bring down the gap from 25 to three points. The talismanic run-scorer, in the process, broke a plethora of records including overtaking Ricky Ponting in the list of most hundreds by a Test skipper. On the other hand, opener Mayank Agarwal has reached the top 10 for the first time.

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Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne and New Zealand’s BJ Watling have made the most notable jumps in the latest chart. Labuschagne’s score of 185 that helped Australia to victory over Pakistan has taken him from 35th to 14th place, while Watling’s 205 in Tauranga not only helped New Zealand beat England but has also lifted him 12 places to 12th position. Both of them achieved their career-best positions in the ICC Rankings.

David Warner, who also scored a beautiful century in the first Test jumped six places to 17th while Joe Burns sits on the 62nd spot, who missed his century by a whisker. England all-rounder Ben Stokes is in the top 10 for batsmen for the first time after scores of 91 and 28 helped him gain three slots.  Joe Denly and Rory Burns have also made notable progress.

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Meanwhile, in the bowler’s list, Neil Wagner has jumped up to his career-best third position with an eight-wicket haul at the Bay Oval. He has a tally of 816 rating points to his name, the third-best ever by a New Zealand bowler after Richard Hadlee (909 points) and Trent Boult (825). Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has moved from 13th to joint-ninth in the bowlers’ list.