Kohli slipped to second position
Indian skipper virat kohli slips down to the second position in the ICC test batsman ranking. Virat Kohli’s poor performance in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington is the cause for this. Kohli only scored 2 and 19 runs in the two innings of the first test against New Zealand. This poor performance drags Kohli to 906 points. Steve Smith, whose last Test match was in January against New Zealand, now tops the Test batting charts with 911 points.
Kohli’s slump meant Smith was back on top for the eighth time after first occupying the top position in June 2015. The last batsman, apart from Smith and Kohli, to be number one is New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, for an eight-day period in December 2015.
Other Indian batsmen
Cheteshwar Pujara also dropped two places to ninth while Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 46 and 19 in Wellington, gained a place to go eighth. Mayank Agarwal, who scored 92 runs over his two innings, including a half-century in the second, jumped two places and to achieve a career-highest 10th spot.
Bowlers position
Tim Southee moved up eight places to sixth spot after picking up nine wickets against India. Trent Boult also jumped up four spots to 13th in the rankings after his impressive show against India. Ishant Sharma, who picked up a five-wicket haul for India, moved up a place to 17th with his career-highest points. Ishant Sharma is just three wickets away from joining the 300 test wicket club by Indian bowlers. Kapil Dev with 434 wickets and Zaheer Khan with 311 wickets already reached this achievement.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who took three wickets for 99 in the first innings against New Zealand, slipped a place to ninth but remained the only Indian featuring in the top 10 with 765 points
The all-rounders’ list features Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin at the third and fifth positions respectively. While Jadeja didn’t play the first Test, Ashwin scored 0 and 4 in the two innings to lose a place.
World Test champions
The defeat in Wellington was India’s first defeat in the World Test Championship. Second-placed Australia, whose next assignment in the longest format of the game is a two-match series in Bangladesh in June, will have a chance then to close the gap on the top of the table. In the ICC World Test Championship, India continues to be placed at the top with 360 points, followed by Australia (296).
New Zealand is on 120 after gaining 60 points for the Wellington victory. It had won 60 points in a 1-1 draw against Sri Lanka.
