Steve Smith’s brilliant show in the just-concluded India-Australia Test in Pune has meant that he has consolidated his position at the top of the International Cricket Council Test batsmen rankings.
According to an ICC release, Smith’s scores of 27 and 109 in the Test took his tally to a career-high 939 points, which increased the gap between him and second-placed Virat Kohli to 66 points. Smith’s tally also took him among distinguished company: They are the sixth-best tally after Sir Don Bradman (961), Sir Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (942 each), and Peter May (941).
However, India’s loss did not affect Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli’s positions in the rankings. Ashwin, who picked up seven wickets in the match, remained the top-ranked bowler while the Indian captain, who had a dismal outing (0 & 13) was unmoved at second place in the batting charts.
Opener KL Rahul, who was one of the few Indian batsmen who came out of the first Test with his reputation intact, moved up to a career-best ranking of 46th.
Matt Renshaw, who had a fine Test match, moved up by 18 spots in the table to reach a career-best 34th position with scores of 68 and 31. Australia’s hero of the match, Steve O’Keefe, leapfrogged 33 places to reach the 29th spot in the bowlers rankings, his best feat after picking up match figures of 12/70.
There were other developments in the bowling charts as Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood moved to the second spot to tie with Ravindra Jadeja with 860 points. Mitchell Starc made strides in the batting and bowling charts. The left-armer moved up to fourth on the all-rounders list, and 61st in the batting charts.
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