Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 21: In the most recent ICC Test rankings, which were revealed on Wednesday, spinner Kuldeep Yadav rocketed 19 spots to 49th, while Indian all-rounder Axar Patel climbed 20 spaces to a career-best 18th place.
Kuldeep, who had eight for 113 in the opening test of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) against Bangladesh, was named Player of the Match and has 455 rating points. Axar has 650 points and entered the top 20 after claiming five victories in the game. Jasprit Bumrah (4th) and Ravichandran Ashwin (5th), who were both injured, kept their spots in the top five.
Veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and youthful batter Shubman Gill both moved up ten spots to take the 16th and 54th spots, respectively. With 664 rating points, Pujara’s scores of 90 and 102 in the first Test against Bangladesh last week helped him enter the top 20.
Gill, the second Indian centurion in the battle, is ranked 54th overall with 517 rating points. With wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant still the top-ranked Indian batsman at number 6, Shreyas Iyer has moved up 11 spots to 26th place thanks to his first innings score of 86.
The captain, Rohit Sharma, who missed the first Test owing to a thumb injury, is ranked nine, and the legendary Virat Kohli is now ranked twelve.
Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan, reached a career-high ranking of second after scoring two half-centuries in the last Test series against England in Karachi. Babar has surpassed Steve Smith, who only achieved 36 and six in a low-scoring match between Australia and South Africa in Brisbane, thanks to his innings of 78 and 54.
In the Test rankings, Marnus Labuschagne sits ahead of Babar by 61 points even though Babar is ranked first in ODIs and fourth in T20Is.
Travis Head of Australia, whose first innings score of 92 was the highest in the Brisbane Test, has moved up three positions to a career-best fourth position as he for the first time crosses the 800-rating point threshold. His prior best finish was fifth in January of this year.
South African quick Kagiso Rabada, who claimed four wickets in each of the two innings at the Gabba, has moved up four spots in the bowlers’ rankings to take third place. Formerly the best bowler in the world, Rabada was third in August of this year before falling further down the list. Australia’s six-wicket victory let them to maintain their lead over India at the top of the WTC standings.
