The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli is just one point away from regaining the ICC no.1 Test ranking from the Australian cricketer, Steve Smith after a career-best 254 not out against South Africa in Pune. Steve Smith is currently the No.1 batsman with 937 points while Kohli has 936 points.
Kohli scored his first Test century of 2019 and his 7th Test double ton as India outplayed the visiting South African team by an innings and 137 runs in the second match in Pune. Kohli had claimed the No.1 rank and had occupied the spot for a while as Smith after serving out a 1-year ban due to his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal.
However, it did not take Smith to reclaim the no.1 position during the Ashes series against England recently. Smith hit 774 runs at a Bradman-Esque average of 110.57 in the 5-match Ashes series despite missing. He missed out on a Test due to delayed concussion.
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Meanwhile, Kohli had an average Test series in the West Indies after the first Test against South Africa in Vizag, he witnessed a significant drop on his points tally for the time since January 2018. In Vizag, Virat just scored 20 runs in the 1st innings and was unbeaten on 31 in the 2nd innings of the 1st Test that India won by 203 runs. Ahead of the Pune Test, Virat had 899 rating points on his account, this was the first time since 2018
Meanwhile, Ajinjkya Rahane got back into the top 10 after scoring a half-century in Pune while Mayank Agarwal continued to climb up the ladder and is now at a career-best No.17 in the ICC Test rankings as he also scored a century. Mayank has 657 rating points in his account, he is in 17th position before he was in the 25th position.
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On the other hand, Rohit Sharma has slipped from number 17 to number 22. Talking about the South African batsmen, Quinton Dickock has slipped to number 10, while South African captain Faf du Plessis has made a slight jump and moved up to number 11.
