ICC Test rankings: Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara go down, Joe Root moves to 3rd

Chennai: India’s Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have moved down by a spot while Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah have moved upwards in the respective ICC Test rankings which got updated after the culmination of the first Test which England won by 227 runs Tuesday.

Kohli, who returned with scores of 11 and 72 in the first Test, is now placed at the fifth spot while Pujara – having accumulated a total of 88 runs across two innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium – is now placed at the seventh spot.

In the list of bowlers, Ashwin and Bumrah are placed at the seventh and eight positions respectively.

England captain Joe Root’s match-winning 218 in the first Test has helped him advance two places to third position. He has overtaken Kohli in the process.

Root, who helped his team to a memorable win in Chennai that kept England in contention for the ICC World Test Championship final, has reached 883 rating points, his highest since September 2017, after a fabulous run in the sub-continent has seen him accumulate 684 runs in three Tests, two of which were in Sri Lanka.

Ahead of Kohli for the first time since November 2017, the England skipper is now 36 points behind top-ranked Kane Williamson and trails Steve Smith by only eight points. With Marnus Labuschagne also in the mix, competition for the top five slots is intense with all of them above 850 rating points.

For India, Rishabh Pant’s knock of 91 in the first innings has helped him become the first full-time wicketkeeper from his country to reach 700 rating points as he retained 13th position among batsmen.

Shubman Gill has progressed seven places to 40th position while all-rounder Washington Sundar is at the 81st spot after moving up two slots. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem too has gained two places to reach 85th position among bowlers.

The second Test, also in Chennai, will begin from Saturday.

IANS