South Africa opener Aiden Markram’s consistent performances in the recently concluded Test series against Australia, has earned him the ninth position among batsmen in the ICC Test Player Rankings. His knocks of 152 and 37 not only contributed to South Africa’s massive 492-run victory over Australia in Johannesburg for a 3-1 series win but have also helped him move up six places.
Markram has broken into the top 10 for the first time in his international career and is now among a select group of 10 cricketers led by Don Bradman who has scored 1,000 runs or more in their first 10 Tests. His opening partner Dean Elgar has taken a huge leap as well after scoring 100 runs in the Test including a knock of 81 in the second innings while skipper Faf du Plessis (up five places to 17th) and Temba Bavuma (up 12 places to 39th) are the other South Africa batsmen to make significant gains.
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For Australia, stand-in skipper Tim Paine has moved up eight places to 53rd position while for England, skipper Joe Root (up one place to third), wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow (up three places to 13th) and Mark Stoneman (up 14 places to 64th) are the ones to progress.
Not surprisingly, South Africa pacers, who dominated the Johannesburg in Test, have taken huge strides in the rankings as well. Pace bowler Vernon Philander’s player of the match effort of nine for 51 has lifted him six places to the third rank, player of the series Kagiso Rabada continue to be on the numero uno position as he took his tally to 902 while Morne Morkel has finished off on a highly touching 800-point mark in his last Test.
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Morkel touched 800 rating points for the first time in his career. He is now ranked joint-sixth along with Australia’s Pat Cummins, who has risen up from 18th to sixth place with nine wickets in Johannesburg.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli was presented with the ICC Test Championship Mace in February itself after they were assured of the top position at the cut-off date and a $ 1 million prize money while South Africa will receive a purse of $ 500,000 for finishing second.
