Steven Smith Retains Top-Spot In ICC Ranings, David Warner Goes Down After Poor Run In Ashes
Sep 17, 2019 at 4:31 PM
Former Australia captain Steven Smith has retained the top-spot in the latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen. Smith missed out on scoring a century in the fifth Ashes Test but scored 80 and 23 in two innings. His domination in the series has seen him stay at the top, ahead of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
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Matthew Wade, the sole batsman to resist against England in the fifth Test’s fourth innings, has entered the list of top 100 batsmen and is seated at 78th position. For once, it looked like Wade might steer Australia to a famous win but as soon as he completed his century, Wade seemed to be done and got stumped on 117.
England’s Jos Buttler and Rory Burns have made improvements in their rankings as well. Buttler, who scored 70 and 47, has jumped ten spots and now sits at 27th position in the rankings. Rory Burns has achieved his career-best ranking and sits at 56th position. David Warner, who had a torrid run at Ashes 2019, slipped seven places to the 24th spot.
Pat Cummins, Australia’s lead pacer at Ashes, retained the top spot in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers. There were not any changes in the bowling list but Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Marsh made improvements to sit at 22nd and 54th spot, respectively.
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For England, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes went a bit down in latest rankings while Jofra Archer, who took a six-fer in Australia’s first innings, went up and now sits at 37th position.
Jack Leach also climbed up in the rankings and sits at 39th position. He played a pivotal role in England’s win with a four-fer in the fourth innings, that included wickets of consecutive balls in 77th over that completed England’s win.
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The Ashes 2019 ended in a draw with both the teams winning two Test matches each. The second Test at Lord’s had ended in a draw, with rain affecting the match largely.
Australia, who had regained the Ashes’ urn in 2017/18 at home, retained it and will next defend it at home in a couple of years.