Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
Riding on a sensational century in his Test comeback, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant on Wednesday re-entered the ICC rankings at an impressive sixth position but India skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli slipped in a major shake-up in standings.
Bettering Pant's 731 rating points is compatriot Yashasvi Jaiswal (751), who makes a move up to fifth, in large part thanks to a half-century in the first innings of the Test match between India and Bangladesh.
Here’s a look at the Top ten batsmen of the latest ICC Test rankings.
Rohit Sharma - 10th
India skipper Rohit Sharma retained his place in the top ten, though he moved down five places with two underwhelming scores. He has 716 rating points.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma could surpass Gautam Gambhir's Test run tally in the upcoming Test. Gambhir has accumulated 4,152 runs in his Test career, while Rohit currently stands at 4,148 runs. The Nagpur-born needs just 7 runs to go past the Indian head coach.
Marnus Labuschagne - 9th
Just a year ago, Marnus Labuschagne was on top of the world test rankings. Now the Australian batsman ranks at number nine as per the latest test rankings. He has 720 rating points.
In 2023, Labuschagne averaged over 60 from 30 Tests. He was, by some distance, top of the ICC Test batting rankings with a rating of 937 – the joint 11th-highest rating point ever achieved, a career-high he shares with Virat Kohli. It’s a high that greats like Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Joe Root and Sachin Tendulkar could never reach.
In 2024, Labuschagne played five Test matches. In a total of 10 innings he has averaged 30 and has three fifties to his name with no centuries.
Mohammad Rizwan - 8th
Arguably one of the best batters in Pakistan’s test team currently, Mohammad Rizwan sits at the 8th place of the new ICC test rankings with a total of 720 points to his name.
In the recent test series against Bangladesh, Rizwan recorded his highest Test score of 171* in the first innings to help Pakistan declare on 448 and then displayed his batting skills again in the second innings with a fifty.
Usman Khawaja - 7th
The Australian batsman has played a total of 73 Tests, scoring more than 5000 runs and averaging at 45.80. He has fifteen centuries and 26 half-centuries in red ball cricket to his name. He has 728 rating points.
In 2024, Khawaja reached the milestone of 7000 international runs across the formats during a Test against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Rishabh Pant - 6th
The Indian wicket-keeper batsman has made a heroic comeback in Test cricket after suffering from a life threatening car-accident in 2022. He re-entered the test rankings with scores of 39 and 109 in the two innings against Bangladesh in the first test at Chennai. Rishabh Pant has 731 rating points.
Pant has played 36 Tests so far in his career and has scored a total of 2,419 runs with an average of 45.
Yashasvi Jaiswal - 5th
Opener Yashaswi Jaiswal is in the top five for the first time after notching a half-century in the first innings against Bangladesh at Chennai. He has a total of 751 rating points.
Thanks to the half-century, Jaiswal became the first batter in the 147-year history of Test cricket to score more than 750 runs in his first 10 innings at home. The record previously belonged to George Headley of West Indies who slammed 747 back in 1935.
Steve Smith - 4th
Steve Smith is ranked 4th in the ICC Test batting rankings with a total of 757 points. In his Test career, he has played 109 matches scoring 9,685 runs with an average of 57.
In a career of twists and turns, Steve Smith started out as a leg spinner and became Australia's best batter since Sir Donald Bradman. And a ball-tampering scandal saw him stripped of the captaincy and banned for 12 months.
Smith returned to Test cricket with a 774-run Ashes series in 2019.
Daryl Mitchell - 3rd
The New Zealand all rounder sits at the top part of the chart with a total of 760 rating points. He has played 24 matches and has scored 1,665 runs, with an average of 50 in his Test match career.
Mitchell, the son of former New Zealand rugby union player and coach John Mitchell, scored his first Test hundred at the start of 2021, in an innings win over Pakistan in Christchurch. Mitchell maintained a successful test tour to England in July 2022 where he piled up a mammoth runfest scoring 538 runs with a stellar average of 107.60 in the three match test series although New Zealand ended the test tour on after being whitewashed by the home side 3–0.
Kane Williamson - 2nd
The former New Zealand captain has played 101 test matches in his career and has scored 8,798 runs, with an average of 55. He is ranked 2nd in the ICC Test batting rankings with a total of 852 points.
By the time Kane Williamson retires from the game, he will probably be New Zealand's greatest ever batsman. Martin Crowe endorsed that view.
Joe Root - 1st
One of the best Test batsmen in World cricket at the moment, Joe Root sits at the top of the rankings with a total of 899 points. In his first 50 tests, he was already averaging above 50.
In 2024, Root played 20 innings and scored more than 900 runs. He has 4 centuries and 4 fifties to his name.
