Virat Kohli Grabs No. 1 Spot in ICC Test Rankings

India may have lost by 31 runs in the first Test against England but Team India captain Virat Kohli’s batting is being praised by everyone. Many former cricketers have given him status as a great player.  In both innings of the first Test Virat Kohli scored 149 and 51 runs.

On behalf of both the teams, he was the highest run scorer in the match. Now the ICC has also rewarded Virat with his fantastic performance and captured him in the first place in the Test rankings.

KOHLI IS NO.1@imVkohli has overtaken Steve Smith to become the new No.1 batsman in @MRFWorldwide ICC Test Rankings.

He is the first Indian since @sachin_rt to get there.

READ ⬇️https://t.co/Hw7OCimIKw pic.twitter.com/s8h4fNmJYK

— ICC (@ICC) August 5, 2018

Yes, in the latest rankings of ICC, Virat Kohli has replaced former Australia captain Steve Smith as the number one ranked Batsman. Kohli has topped the rankings for the first time in his Test career. As per the latest ranking, Virat has now become number one batsmen with 934 points . Smith has slipped to second place with 929 points. England’s captain Joe Root has been ranked third in this list.

Apart from Kohli, another Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has also been in the top-10 list. Pujara currently has 929 points and is sixth in this list. If we talk about Virat, then from past seven years, no Indian batsman has reached number one spot in the ICC Test rankings.

Earlier, in 2011, the great cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became the number one batsman in the world. Apart from Sachin and Virat, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar have also done this.

However, at 934 points, Kohli has become India’s highest-ranked batsman, 14^th overall, on the all-time tally of points. Kohli had entered the Edgbaston Test on 903 points, 13 points behind Gavaskar, and is now ahead of the ICC Cricket Hall of Famer by 18 points.

If Kohli can deliver another strong performance in the second Test at Lord’s, then he can break into the top-10 by leapfrogging Matthew Hayden, Kallis and AB de Villiers, whose highest points tally was 935 each. Donald Bradman (961) and Steve Smith (947) are the two batsmen sitting on top of this exclusive list.

ICC Test Batsmen Rankings

England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow is the other England player to improve his ranking. The Yorkshireman now shares 12^th position with the West Indies’ Kraigg Brathwaite after moving up four places.

The batsmen to lose ground after the Edgbaston Test include Alistair Cook 17^th (down by four places), Lokesh Rahul 19^th (down by one place), Ajinkya Rahane 22^nd (down by three places), Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, who now share 25^th position after slipping two and one spots, respectively, and Ben Stokes 33^rd (down by five places).

(Source: ICC)