Kohli, Pujara take a hit in ICC Test rankings
India's top-ranked Test batsmen, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have slipped down the ICC rankings after the horrendous batting display at Cape Town. One the other hand, splendid performance by Bhuvneshwar Kumar has rewarded the pacer highly as he jumped 8 places to gain his career-best position of 22 in the latest Test rankings released by ICC. Here is more about the new rankings.
Virat Kohli slips to no 3
Virat Kohli, who scored just 5 and 28 in the first test, dropped 13 points and is now placed third ahead of New Zealand's skipper Kane Williamson. Pujara's scores of 26 and 4 resulted in him dropping 25 points. England's captain, Joe Root gained 26 points after the final Ashes Test in Sydney where he scored 141 runs to claim the 2nd spot.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar achieves career best rank
India's swing ace, Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged 6 wickets and was India's stand out performer in the 1st Test which they lost by 72-runs. Post this performance, he is now ranked 22nd amongst Test bowlers. Australia's Pat Cummins has jumped 8 places to achieve his career-best rank and is now in 28th after his man of the match performance of 8 for 119 at SCG.
Pandya goes from strength to strength
Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya was among the biggest gainers rocketing 24 places to be ranked 49 amongst Test all-rounders. The poor batting performance has seen Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma all lose ground in the batsman ranking list. Vijay lost 5 places and is now placed 30th, Dhawan dropped 3 places to 33rd, and Rohit slipped 3 places to 44th.
Rabada becomes top-ranked Test bowler
Kagiso Rabada is in the form of his life and has become the number-one ranked bowler in the ICC Test bowler rankings. The 22-year-old has enjoyed a fruitful 2017 and ended up as the second highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 57 scalps, just six behind Australian spin ace Nathan Lyon.
ABD jumps up the rankings after comeback
South African batsmen have also lost ground with Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar slipping three places to 10th and 16th respectively. On the other hand, Markram moved up six places to 48th while AB De Villiers jumped 5 spots to be ranked 13th. No prizes for guessing Australian captain Steven Smith sits comfortably atop the ICC Test batsman ranking charts with 947 points.
India are still the No 1 ranked team
Despite the loss to South Africa, India continue to be the number 1 ranked Test team in the world with 124 points. Second on the chart, South Africa have 111 points followed by Australia at 104.
