On Tuesday (3rd March), the International Cricket Council (ICC) has released the latest Test players’ rankings. Though the Indian captain Virat Kohli has maintained the second place of the Test batting rankings, he lost more rating points and put himself more behind from the top-ranked Test batsman Steven Smith. Meanwhile, New Zealand pacer Tim Southee, who won the Player of the Series award after the conclusion of the home Test series against India, moved up to the top five in the Test bowling rankings.
The top-ranked Test side India recently lost the two-match Test series against the hosts New Zealand by the 2-0 margin. After losing the first Test at Wellington by ten wickets, the visitors also lost the last game of this series at Christchurch by seven wickets. Though India retained their top position on the Test team rankings, New Zealand climbed up to the second position in the Test team rankings.
Test batting rankings: Virat Kohli has now 886 rating points
Virat Kohli lost the top place of the Test batting rankings after the disappointing performances in the Wellington Test. He once again faced the bad patch in the Christchurch Test and lost 20 more points from the rating but maintained the second position in the Test batting rankings. Kohli is now 25 rating points behind of the Australian cricketer Steven Smith (911 rating points), the present leader of the Test batting rankings.
While the Indian opener Mayank Agarwal has slipped down from the top 10 positions of the ICC Test batting rankings (11), Prithvi Shaw moved to the 76th position after leaping 17 places. Another Indian cricketer Hanuma Vihari also climbed up to the 46th spot in the same table.
In the meantime, both the Kiwi openers Tom Latham and Tom Blundell managed to climb up in the ICC Test batting rankings as they are standing in the 12th and 37th positions respectively.
Test bowling rankings: Tim Southee is in the fourth position
New Zealand pacer Tim Southee bagged 14 wickets in the two-match home Test series against India and won the Player of the Series award too. Moving the two spots in the ICC Test bowling rankings, Southee (812 points) is now standing in the fourth position, only behind of Australian pacer Pat Cummins (904 rating points), New Zealand pacer Neil Wagner (843 rating points) and West Indies pacer Jason Holder (830 rating points).
Another Kiwi left-arm pacer Trent Boult (9th spot) and the Indian right-arm pacer Jasprit Bumrah (7th spot) have returned to the top ten positions in the ICC Test bowling rankings.
New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson, who managed his maiden five-wicket haul in international career during the latest Christchurch Test, jumped 37 spots and he is now standing in 43rd position in the Test bowling rankings. Also, in the Test all-rounder rankings, Jamieson moved up to the 22nd position.