Career-best for Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja in latest ICC Test rankings
Virat Kohli's incredible series against England, which saw him bring up another fifty in the third Test helped him reach his career-best Test Ranking of No.3 in the latest ICC Rankings for Test batsmen. As far as the bowlers are concerned, Ravichandran Ashwin is still No.1 with Josh Hazlewood being the biggest mover and Ravindra Jadeja achieved his career-best of No.4 in the all-rounders rankings.
62 in the first innings and an unbeaten six in the second coupled with poor form of Younus Khan meant that Virat Kohli moved up to a career-best third spot in the latest rankings with 833 points. Having started the series in 15th position, Kohli’s 405 runs have helped him rocket up the rankings.
Steve Smith still has top spot as far as Test batsmen are concerned and has a 50 point lead over Root, who is second place and only 14 ahead of Kohli. However, with two more India-England Tests to go, both players will be looking to close the gap to the Australian captain before he next plays a Test match, against Pakistan.
There was also career-best positions for Jonny Bairstow, who moved up three places to ninth as he continued his fairytale year, Australian batsman Usman Khawaja, who moved up nine places to 19th and Stephen Cook, who climbed 30 places to a career-best 44th. The biggest loser though was Younus Khan, who moved down to ninth after his horror show in New Zealand.
As far as the bowlers are concerned, Ravichandran Ashwin is still No.1 and extended his lead over Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath while there was personal bests achieved by Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, South Africa’s Kyle Abbott, India’s Mohammad Shami and England’s Ben Stokes.
Hazlewood’s performance in the Day-Night Test helped him move into the top five for the first time while Shami moved up two places to 19th Stokes climbed four to take the No.21 slot.
In the all-rounders rankings, Ravindra Jadeja is now at a career-best of No.4 after his crucial fifty in Mohali while his bowling partner in crime, Ashwin is still top but with 498 points, which is more than any all-rounder has achieved since Jacques Kallis in 2008.
ICC Test rankings for batsmen
| Rank | Player | Ranking Points |
| 1 | Steve Smith (AUS) | 897 |
| 2 | Joe Root (ENG) | 847 |
| 3 | Virat Kohli (IND) | 833 |
| 4 | Kane Williamson (NZ) | 817 |
| 5 | Hashim Amla (SA) | 791 |
| 6 | AB de Villiers (RSA) | 778 |
| 7 | David Warner (AUS) | 772 |
| 8 | Cheteshwar Pujara (IND) | 760 |
| 9 | Jonny Bairstow (ENG) | 759 |
| 10 | Younis Khan (PAK) | 753 |
ICC Test rankings for bowlers
| Rank | Player | Ranking Points |
| 1 | Ravichandran Ashwin (IND) | 891 |
| 2 | Rangana Herath (SL) | 867 |
| 3 | Dale Steyn (SA) | 844 |
| 4 | James Anderson (ENG) | 834 |
| 5 | Josh Hazlewood (AUS) | 815 |
| 6 | Stuart Broad (ENG) | 812 |
| 7 | Ravindra Jadeja (IND) | 796 |
| 8 | Mitchell Starc (AUS) | 787 |
| 9 | Yasir Shah (PAK) | 781 |
| 10 | Neil Wagner (NZ) | 755 |