ICC Test rankings: Virat Kohli maintains top spot, Cheteshwar Pujara loses a spot

India cricket team captain, Virat Kohli, who has amassed 928 points, is way ahead of second-placed Australian maestro Steve Smith (911) and New Zealand’s inspirational skipper Kane Williamson (822) in the latest ICC test ranking.

It means that Kohli will end the year on high as indicated by the latest chart for batsmen while five-day specialist, Cheteshwar Pujara (791 points) lost a place and moved to the fifth position.

Meanwhile, Marnus Labuschagne, who has amassed 1,085 runs in 11 Tests this year, grabbed the fourth spot while Ajinkya Rahane was joint seventh with 759 points.

Scoring an enterprising 95 against England in the first Test, Quinton de Kock did not only set up his team’s win but also shot into the top of the latest rankings released on Monday.

In bowling, Jasprit Bumrah, who is returning from an injury layoff, remained the sixth position with 794 points. In contrast, Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who amassed 772 points and seamer Mohammed Shami with 771 points, were ninth and tenth respectively in the order.

Pat Cummins got the top spot in bowling with 902 points ahead of Neil Wagner (859) and South African paceman Kagiso Rabada (832).

In another development, Indian opener, Rohit Sharma has beaten captain Virat Kohli to become the top run-getter on One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in a calendar year.

The bowler who is known for taking the opposition bowling attack to the cleaners with ease finished the last two years – 2017 and 2018 – as No. 2, but signed off the year 2019 in his trademark style.

A look at the top five ODI batsmen in 2019 showed that Rohiy with 28 ODIs has 27 innings and 1490 runs, averaging 57.30. His stellar performance in 2019 had seven centuries which came against – Australia (133 in Sydney), South Africa (122* in Southampton), Pakistan (140 in Manchester), England (102 in Birmingham), Bangladesh (104 in Birmingham), Sri Lanka (103 in Leeds) and West Indies (159 in Vizag). The feat is the most by any batsman in 2019 in ODIs.

Rohit also scored six half centuries in the calendar year alongside 146 fours and 36 sixes in the year under review.

Kohli is second on the list, with 1377 runs at an average of 59.86 in 26 ODIs (25 innings). In the year under review, he had five centuries and seven fifties, 133 fours and eight sixes to his name.

He also scored three centuries against Australia (104 in Adelaide, 116 in Nagpur and 123 in Ranchi) and two against the West Indies (120 in Port of Spain and 114* at the same venue).

West Indies Skipper occupies the third spot with 1345 runs in 28 ODIs (26 innings). 26-year-old in the year under review also scored four centuries and eight fifties, averaging 61.13.