Virat Kohli Displaces Smith To Become No.1 Test Batsman

India's skipper Virat Kohli displaced Australia's Steve Smith and becomes the No.1 Test batsman in latest MRFTyres ICC Test Rankings updated on Sunday, August 5. Kohli has now 934 points, 5 more than second-placed Smith.

Kohli now becomes the seventh Indian batsman, and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011, to climb to the top of the rankings. He reached to this milestone after the knock of 149 & 51 in the first Test against England concluded on Saturday, August 4 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. However, his remarkable effort went in vain as England won the match by 31-runs.



Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmen to have achieved number-one rankings during their careers.

Before the first Test match, Kohli had 903 points and was behind Smith with 26 points. But Smith isn't playing international cricket and will not be playing till March 2019 due to a 12-month suspension imposed by Cricket Australia for his part in the Newlands ball-tampering saga.

Apart from Kohli, England's Sam Curran is another big mover in both batsmen and bowlers rankings. The 20-year old scored 24 runs and 4-wickets in the first innings and a match-winning 63 runs and 1 wicket in the second innings and therefore, he jumped from 152nd to 72nd spot in batting charts while the bowling table has seen him rise 49 places to 62nd position.



India's Mohammed Shami slipped two places to 19th in bowlers table while England's Stuart Broad fall one place to 13th. James Anderson has managed to hold his No.1 position.

Latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen:

1. Virat Kohli (IND) 934 Points



2. Steve Smith (AUS) 929 Points

3. Joe Root (ENG) 865 Points

4. Kane Williamson (NZ) 847 Points

5. David Warner (AUS) 820 Points

6. Cheteshwar Pujara (IND) 791 Points

7. Dimuth Karunaratne (SL) 754 Points

8. Dinesh Chandimal (SL) 733 Points

9. Dean Elgar (SA) 724 Points

10. Aiden Markram (SA) 703 Points

Latest ICC Test rankings for bowlers:

1. James Anderson (ENG) 884 Points

2. Kagiso Rabada (SA) 882 Points

3. Ravindra Jadeja (IND) 857 Points

4. Vernon Philander (SA) 826 Points

5. Ravichandran Ashwin(IND) 825 Points

6. Pat Cummins (AUS) 800 Points

7. Trent Boult (NZ) 795 Points

8. Rangana Herath (SL) 791 Points

9. Neil Wagner (NZ) 765 Points

10. Josh Hazlewood (AUS) 759 Points

For more and latest news about Cricket, stay tuned to us.

Thanks for the reading.