Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s consistent batting in the Test format helped him climbing three positions in the latest ICC Test batsman ranking. He grabbed the 2nd position in the rankings after he scored a massive 615 runs in 3 Test matches he played against Sri Lanka. However, he yet to match Ricky Ponting’s records of being number 1 batsman across all the formats at a time.
The former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting has been the only batsman till date to reach this feat in December-January 2005-06, while his compatriot Matthew Hayden is the other batsman to have topped all three formats.
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Virat Kohli is 45 points away from current Australian captain Steve Smith in the ranking tally. Smith is now on 938 points while Kohli is on 893 points. Hence, the Indian skipper will definitely be eyeing to dethrone his Australian counterpart and rule the rank table across all the three formats.
Starting his series with a duck against Sri Lanka in Kolkata, Kohli ended up being the highest runs scorer of the tournament and bagged the Man of the series award. Before the beginning of the series, Kohli was ranked 6th in the ICC rankings. After smashing one century, two double centuries and one half-century against the Lankans, Kohli rode to the position number 2 and left behind David Warner, Cheteshwar Pujara, Kane Williamson and Joe Root.
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Apart from Kohli Indian batter with the likes of Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma grabbed the 25th and 40th position respectively. However, Cheteshar Pujara slipped two spots to number 4.
Meanwhile, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja slipped to No.3 in the ICC Test bowlers’ rankings. English speedster James Anderson is leading the followed by South African Kagiso Rabada. Ravichandran Ashwin retained his No.4 spot while veteran Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Rangana Herath was at No.5.
After finishing the Sri Lanka series, Team India will be leaving for South Africa to play a 3-Test match series. The first Test is scheduled to be played on January 5 in Cape Town.
