A host of Indian cricketers including Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Axar Patel have witnessed massive gains in the ICC Test rankings after India’s 2-1 series win over Australia in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Leading the way is Virat Kohli, who has taken a leap of seven places to be ranked No. 13 on the list. Only Rishabh Pant (ranked 5th) and Rohit Sharma (10th) are the two Indians ahead of him. Kohli ended the series with 297 runs, next only to Usman Khawaja.

Kohli may not have gotten the big scores but throughout the series, he was definitely playing some decent knocks. After a 44-run knock in Delhi which many believed was the best Kohli looked in a long time, he stepped up in the series decider, holding up one end. Kohli’s 28th Test century which took 1205 days ensured India took the lead and batted Australia out of the contest.

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Meanwhile, R Ashwin cemented himself at the numero uno position in the bowlers’ rankings after displacing James Anderson from the top. After a back-and-forth battle, Ashwin and Anderson were named the joint No. 1 ranked ICC Test bowlers. Ashwin, with 26 wickets in the series has adjudged the Player of the Series, sharing the honors with spin partner Ravindra Jadeja.

R Ashwin finished the series with two 5-wicket-hauls – 5/37 in Nagpur and 6/91 in Ahmedabad to go with four 3-wicket-hauls as well. Pure domination. Besides Kohli and Ashwin, Axar may have picked up just two wickets, but his exploits with the bat, which saw him score 264 runs including three fifties rocketed him up by eight places to be ranked 44 on the list of Test batters.

If those weren’t enough testament to how far Axar’s batting has come, in his hometown of Ahmedabad, the all-rounder smashed an entertaining 79 giving Kohli company for a massive 262-run partnership.

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There were positives for Australia too with Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, and Travis Head’s performances getting acknowledged. Khawaja, who led the charts with 333 runs made a splash of a couple of places to be ranked seventh, while all-rounder Cameron Green, following a maiden Test century, leapfrogged 11 places to reach a career-best 26th position. Travis Head, meanwhile, stayed put at fifth.