New Zealand Captain Kane Williamson breached the 900-points barrier for the first time in the updated ICC Test rankings. The dashing batsman had played a match-winning knock in the final Test against Pakistan in UAE which helped New Zealand clinch their first away series win against the nation in 49 years.
This is also the first instance of any batsman from New Zealand going past 900 rankings points. Only the great Richard Hadlee had managed to break that barrier but it was his bowling that had earned him these many points. Williamson is currently placed second, he jumped in front of Australia’s Steve Smith (901 points) who is serving a year ban.
Current table-topper Virat Kohli scored only 37 runs across two innings in the Adelaide Test. He lost 15 points due to the failure on his favorite batting track and now only seven points separate Kohli (920) and Williamson (913). Man of the Match for the opening Test between India and Australia, Cheteshwar Pujara jumped two places. He is now ranked fourth, one place ahead of English captain Joe Root.
Another big mover in the rankings was Henry Nicholls. The New Zealand batsman who struck a century in the final Test broke into the top-10. He moved up by eight places and occupies the ninth position. Azhar Ali also lifted himself and now owns the tenth spot. Ajinkya Rahane (17th) and Rishabh Pant (59th) improved their rankings whereas KL Rahul (26th), Murali Vijay (45th) and Rohit Sharma (54th) lost their footings.
Among the bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah, who is already making the batsmen jump and hop, has achieved the career-best ranking of 33. Nathan Lyon bowled a marathon spell at Adelaide and picked up six wickets in India’s second innings. The Australian off-spinner is jumped quite a few places and is positioned now at the 14th spot.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Pat Cummins swapped places as the off-spinner now finds himself at the sixth spot and the pace bowler is now seventh. Mitchell Starc moved upwards as well while Yasir Shah remains ninth in the Test rankings.