Team India has managed to retain the no.1 position in the ICC Test team rankings despite a dismal Test series against New Zealand. India has 116 rating points, six more than New Zealand with third-placed Australia accumulating 108 points. The 0-2 result against the Kiwis was India’s first series loss in the World Test Championship.
The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli has also retained the second position in the Test batsmen despite a forgettable outing in the Test series in which he made 38 runs in four innings, the ICC said in a statement. New Zealand opener Tom Blundell and his Indian counterpart Prithvi Shaw and debutant fast bowler Kyle Jamieson were among the biggest movers in the rankings.
Shaw, who was playing after a long time as he made his Test debut against West Indies in 2018, and made a punchy 54 in the first innings of the Christchurch Test, rose 17 places to No.76. Australia’s Steve Smith retained his no.1 position, holding a 25-point advantage over Kohli.
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Smith’s teammate Marnus Labuschagne has taken a leap of one spot to round off the top three, taking the place of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. England all-rounder Ben Stokes and the Indian opener Mayank Agarwal moved one position each and swapped places to break into and fall out of the top 10 respectively.
Among bowlers, Tim Southee’s Player of the Series-winning performance against India took him into the top five, with a jump of a couple of places to No.4, while Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult returned to the top 10 rankings, gaining four places each to occupy the seventh and ninth positions respectively.
But the biggest gainer was Jamieson, who rose from No. 80 to 43. There was only one change in the top-10 among all-rounders, with Southee dropping a position to No.10 and team-mate Neil Wagner falling out of the top 10 with a drop of four spots.
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As with the bowling rankings, Jamieson, who frustrated India with handy lower-order contributions, gained big on the all-rounders’ table, rising 26 places to No. 22.
