ICC Test Rankings | Virat Kohli maintains lead over Steve Smith, Ben Stokes and Jasprit Bumrah gain big

After an exhilarating month of Test match cricket – or the ICC World Test Championship – the latest update of player rankings was released on Tuesday. Despite amassing 378 runs in only his first three innings on his comeback to Test cricket, Smith still finds himself six points behind the Indian skipper. It seems that Kohli’s fifty in the second innings of the Antigua Test against West Indies helped him hold on to the numero uno spot. Currently, Kohli has 910 points while Smith, with 904, is placed second. Kane Williamson and Cheteshwar Pujara are a distant third and fourth respectively.

Quite obviously, the biggest gainer was the England all-rounder Stokes, following his stupendous effort in the third Test against Australia at Headingley. His hard-working spell of bowling and that breathtaking 135 not out has helped him reach career-best positions among batsmen and all-rounders – 13th among batsmen and second among all-rounders.

Another man-of-the-match performer was duly rewarded among the batsmen’s category. With scores of 81 and 102 in the first Test against the West Indies, Indian Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane jumped 10 places to be 11th in the list.

Among the bowlers, Bumrah’s fairytale lives on with his maiden entry into the top ten spots in the same week he became the fastest Indian pacer to 50 wickets. Bumrah leapt nine places to the seventh position, owing to his five-wicket haul against the Windies. Australia’s Pat Cummins still leads the charts, after what was a strong week of Test cricket for the fast bowlers.