A maiden Test series win on the Australian soil has helped the Indian team and its skipper Virat Kohli maintain their respective pole positions in the latest ICC Test rankings released on January 21. India, with 116 points, stayed at the No 1 ranked Test team while skipper Kohli (922 points) was 25 points ahead of the second-ranked New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson (897).

Cheteshwar Pujara after his dream series in Australia is ranked third among the batsmen while young wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant has entered the top 20 with a career-best 17th rank. In the bowler’s list Kagiso Rabada still leading the charts while Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are the best-ranked Indians at fifth and ninth place respectively.

The Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has climbed to 15th position with 711 points. England will have to win their upcoming three-match series against the West Indies starting on Wednesday in order to retain the third position in the rankings while Australia and Sri Lanka will vie for important points in their two-match series starting a day later.

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A 3-0 sweep will lift England to 109 points but they will remain behind India and South Africa, while the West Indies will remain in eighth position irrespective of how the matches pan out. On Thursday with another series starting on Thursday, Australia and Sri Lanka will remain in fifth and sixth positions, respectively, whatever the series result.

Australia will gain three points and go up to 104 if they win 2-0 with Sri Lanka losing two and going down to 89 in such a scenario. Sri Lanka has the chance of reaching up to 95 points and to within two points of Australia with a 2-0 series win.

Kohli is expected to earn the ICC Test mace for the for the second time this year if India maintains the position further.