ICC Test Rankings | Virat Kohli closes in on Smith’s no.1 spot; Bumrah drops out of Top 10

Virat Kohli might have left for India with a soulless look on his face, on the back of his side’s horror showing on Saturday, but he has a reason to smile on a personal front as the Indian skipper has closed the gap on Steve Smith at the Top of the ICC’s batsman’s rankings to just 13 points. Kohli (888 points) posted scores of 74 and 4 in the first Test in Adelaide, while his counterpart Smith (901) only managed 1 & 1*. While Kohli will not have a chance to improve on his score, a few more blips from the Australian could potentially see the Indian skipper regain top position in the rankings. 

But while Kohli received good news, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Jasprit Bumrah all slipped in the rankings in their respective areas of strength. While Pujara and Rahane, both of whom failed to score half-centuries in Adelaide, slipped to 8th and 11th in the batsman’s rankings respectively, Bumrah, who claimed only 2 wickets in the entire match, dropped out of the Top 10 in the bowler’s rankings. There was a rise in the rankings, however, for Ravichandran Ashwin, who starred in Adelaide, picking 5 wickets in the match. Ashwin (777) rose to 9th spot in the bowlers’ rankings, now only 4 shy of Jimmy Anderson (781) at 8th. 

Pat Cummins retained top spot in the bowlers’ rankings, with 910 rating points to his name, while he was joined in the Top 5 by his partner Josh Hazlewood, who was the architect of the Adelaide abomination on Saturday. Cummins, however, is well clear of second-placed Stuart Broad, who is 65 rating points behind the Australian.