After going past the tally of his entire 2014 series in one innings at Edgbaston in 2018, Virat Kohli has now become the world No 1 Test batsman in the latest ICC rankings, issued on Sunday.
Kohli scored 149 and 51 in India’s agonising 31-run defeat and his efforts fetched him 31 points, bringing to an end Steve Smith’s 32-month reign as the top-ranked batsman. Kohli reaches the top of the Test summit for the first time in his 67-Test career. He is also the No 1 ranked ODI player currently.
Kohli has overtaken Smith, who had held the top spot since December 2015.
Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmen to have achieved number-one rankings during their careers. Kohli is the first Indian since Tendulkar in 2011 to become the world No 1 Test batsman.
With 934 points, Kohli has become India’s highest-rated batsman, 14th overall, on the all-time tally of points. He went past Gavaskar’s 916 to achieve this feat.
Meanwhile James Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, remained on top of an unchanged top 10 in the Test bowling rankings following his impressive display at Edgbaston which included a brilliant duel with Kohli.
The rankings will next be updated following the second Test between England and India at Lord’s, which begins on August 9.
The ICC Test Player Rankings (as on August 5, following the Edgbaston Test)
(rank, change in ranking, player, team, points, average, highest rating):
Batting
01 (+1) Virat Kohli (IND) 934 54.28 934 v ENG Edgbaston 2018
02 (-1) Steve Smith (AUS) 929 61.37 947 v RSA Durban 2018
03 (-) Joe Root (ENG) 865 52.18 917 v AUS Trent Bridge 2015
04 (-) Kane Williamson (NZL) 847 50.35 893 v AUS Perth 2015
05 (-) David Warner (AUS) 820 48.20 880 v NZL Perth 2015
06 (-) Cheteshwar Pujara (IND) 791 50.34 888 v SRI Nagpur 2017
07 (-) Dimuth Karunaratne (SRI) 754 37.28 754 v RSA Colombo (SSC) 2018
08 (-) Dinesh Chandimal (SRI) 733 44.96 755 v WIS St Lucia 2018
09 (-) Dean Elgar (RSA) 724 41.05 784 v AUS Johannesburg 2018
10 (-) Aiden Markram (RSA) 703 47.27 759 v Aus Johannesburg 2018
Bowling
01 (-) James Anderson (ENG) 884 27.19 896 v WIS Lord’s 2017
02 (-) Kagiso Rabada (RSA) 882 21.71 902 v AUS Pt Elizabeth 2018
03 (-) Ravindra Jadeja (IND) 857 23.11 899 v AUS Ranchi 2017
04 (-) Vernon Philander (RSA) 826 21.54 912 v IND Johannesburg 2013
05 (-) Ravichandran Ashwin (IND) 825 25.17 904 v ENG Mumbai 2016
06 (-) Pat Cummins (AUS) 800 23.81 800 v RSA Johannesburg 2018
07 (-) Trent Boult (NZL 795 27.84 825 v ENG Lord’s 2015
08 (-) Rangana Herath (SRI) 791 27.95 867 v ZIM Harare 2016
09 (-) Neil Wagner (NZL) 765 28.26 785 v WIS Wellington 2017
10 (-) Josh Hazlewood (AUS) 759 26.84 863 v IND Bangalore 2017
(With inputs from AFP)
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