IND vs SA | R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma climb in Test rankings; Virat Kohli drops points

Finally, Ravichandran Ashwin has broken into the top 10 of the bowling after a prolonged absence. Having been left out of the playing 11 in the West Indies tour, Ashwin came back strongly and bagged a total of eight wickets in the first match of the home season. 

With these eight wickets, he also became the joint-fastest bowler to 350 wickets, joining the elite company of Muttiah Muralitharan. He took only 66 matches to achieve this feat which puts him level with the Sri Lanka legend.

Rohit Sharma leapt an overwhelming 36 positions to career-best 17th position in the Test batsman ranking in the latest update. This came after he scored two tons in a single Test match to set the tone for India’s victory over the Proteas. His tremendous comeback into the Test team after a series of low scores earned him a spot in the Top 20. His partner in crime Mayank Agarwal, who scored his career-best 215, opening alongside Rohit, also made a tremendous leap of 38 places to end up at 25th position. 

The fourth innings hero, Bengal pacer Mohammed Shami who notched up 5 wickets to pave way for India’s massive victory. His heroics earned him a two place increment to end up on the 16th spot. 

However, Virat Kohli dropped a few points to slip under the 900 point mark for the first time since January 2018. This left Kohli 38 points behind the No. 1 batsman - Steven Smith.