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Lahore: Steven Smith has reclaimed the top spot in the latest ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen which were released following the conclusion of The Oval and P.Sara Oval Tests.
The incoming Australia captain started the Ashes series at the top of the rankings on 913 points, but had lost his place to England’s Joe Root after the Trent Bridge Test. However, after scoring 143 in his side’s an innings and 46 runs victory at the The Oval, the 26-year-old has overtaken second-placed AB de Villiers, as well as Root, who has dropped to third following scores of six and 11.
Root had started the series in seventh place on 815 points and has gained 74 points and four places over the course of the series.
There was further good news for David Warner who has moved up two places to ninth after scoring 85, while Chris Rogers concluded his career in 10th place (after climbing 13 places since the start of the series) as the second-highest left-handed batsmen in the rankings behind another illustrious retiree Kumar Sangakkara, who finished his career in seventh spot.
Sangakkara, who scored 32 and 18 in Sri Lanka’s 278 runs defeat at the P.Sara Oval, first reached number-one in the Test batting rankings in December 2007 against England after innings of 92 and 152 in Kandy.
Sangakkara spent a total of 97 Tests and 812 days as the top-ranked Test batsman in the world and was last number-one in December 2014, before losing the top spot to de Villiers. His highest-ever points tally was 938, achieved on 1 December 2007, and that total is the highest-ever achieved by a Sri Lanka batsman to date and the joint sixth-highest of all-time.
Meanwhile, Michael Clarke has finished his 115-Test career in 25th spot. Clarke surged to the top of the rankings in August 2009 and did so for the last time in February 2013. During this period, he topped the batting rankings on several occasions (totaling 11 Tests and 70 days).
Clarke is one of the 30 internationals, including eight Australia batmen, to reach 900 points, which was incidentally his highest points tally that was achieved after the 2012 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.
As an Australia captain, the 34-year-old from Sydney led his team to the top of the ICC Test Team Rankings from May 2011 to July 2014.
The other big movers in the latest batting rankings are India’s Ajinkya Rahane (up two places to a career-high 20th), Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (up two to 34th) and England’s Moeen Ali (up two to a career-high 48th), while there were also notable career-high gains for Adam Voges (up 21 to 53rd), and India team-mates Lokesh Rahul (up 30 places to 87th) and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha (up 15 places to 100th).
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson has climbed two places to sixth after recording match figures of four for 86 runs in London, while Ravichandran Ashwin’s match tally of seven for 118 in Colombo has helped the off-spinner overtake Rangana Herath into eighth place on 769 points, one point behind South Africa’s Vernon Philander.
Arising from the conclusion of the fifth Ashes Test, there were gains for Peter Siddle (up three places to 14th) and Nathan Lyon (up two to 16th), while the highest England movers again were Moeen (up four places to 30th) and Ben Stokes (up one place to a career-high 41st). Mitchell Marsh has rocketed 36 places to a career-high 71st place.
Meanwhile, there were career-high gains for Sri Lanka duo of Dhammika Prasad, whose six for 125 runs in Colombo has helped him move up four places to 25th, while his team-mate Tharindu Kaushal has moved up one place to 59th.
The biggest mover in the bowling rankings, though, was India leg-spinner Amit Mishra whose match haul of seven for 72 has helped him move up 42 places to a career-high 39th.
Ashwin has also gained ground on Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan in the ICC Player Rankings for Test All-rounders and has reduced the deficit on the leader to 43 points.
The deciding third and final Test between Sri Lanka and India starts at Colombo on Friday. If India wins the series 2-1, it will overtake New Zealand and move into fifth place. However, a Sri Lanka series victory would see it progress to 96 points and overtake India into sixth place. In the event of a 1-1 tied series, Virat Kohli’s side would remain in sixth place, four points clear of Mathews’ men.
ICC TEST PLAYER RANKINGS (as on 25 August, after The Oval and P.Sara Tests)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 (+2) Steven Smith Aus 910 56.27 936 v Eng at Lord’s 2015
2 ( – ) AB de Villiers SA 890 52.09 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
3 (-2) Joe Root Eng 889 54.66 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
4 ( – ) Hashim Amla SA 881 52.48 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013
5 ( – ) Angelo Mathews SL 867 51.97 877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014
6 (+1) Younus Khan Pak 829 54.07 880 v SL at Lahore 2009
7 (-1) K. Sangakkara SL 827 57.40 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
8 ( – ) K. Williamson NZ 813 45.70 860 v Eng at Lord’s 2015
9 (+2) David Warner Aus 775 46.78 880 v Ind at Adelaide 2014
10 (-1) Chris Rogers Aus 761 42.87 793 v Eng at Lord’s 2015
Selected rankings
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
11 (-1) Virat Kohli Ind 756 45.91 784 v NZ at Wellington 2014
15 (+4) Alastair Cook Eng 718 46.41 874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012
20 (+2) Ajinkya Rahane Ind 699*! 46.24 699 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015
22 (-1) Murali Vijay Ind 687 41.72 689 v Ban at Fatullah 2015
25 (-1) Michael Clarke Aus 635 49.10 900 v SL at Melbourne 2012
30 (-7) D. Chandimal SL 619* 45.61 646 v Ind at Galle 2015
33 (-2) Ian Bell Eng 580 43.00 822 v Ind at The Oval 2011
34= ( – ) Kaushal Silva SL 568* 33.97 638 v Pak at Colombo (PSS) 2015
(+2) D. Karunaratne SL 568* 34.05 596 v Pak at Pallekele 2015
45 (-5) Ben Stokes Eng 523* 31.57 594 v Aus at Lord’s 2015
48 (+2) Moeen Ali Eng 517*! 31.20 517 v Aus at The Oval 2015
52 (+5) Rohit Sharma Ind 487* 37.80 578 v NZ at Wellington 2014
53 (+21) Adam Voges Aus 455*! 46.00 455 v Eng at The Oval 2015
73 (+5) L. Thirimanne SL 386! 26.13 386 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015
81 (+6) Mitchell Starc Aus 354* 25.92 368 v Eng at The Oval 2013
87 (+30) Lokesh Rahul Ind 328*! 31.50 328 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015
100 (+15) W. Saha Ind 262*! 23.66 262 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 ( – ) Dale Steyn SA 905 22.48 909 v WI at Centurion 2014
2 ( – ) Stuart Broad Eng 835 29.16 852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
3 (+1) Trent Boult NZ 814 27.12 825 v Eng at Lord’s 2015
4 (+1) Yasir Shah Pak 810*! 24.81 810 v SL at Pallekele 2015
5 (-2) James Anderson Eng 807 29.38 847 v WI at Barbados 2015
6 (+2) M. Johnson Aus 773 27.94 849 v Pak at Dubai 2014
7 ( – ) V. Philander SA 770 22.13 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013
8 (+1) R. Ashwin Ind 769 28.53 808 v WI at Mumbai 2013
9 (-3) Rangana Herath SL 748 30.02 851 v Pak at Colombo (SSC) 2014
10 ( – ) Tim Southee NZ 713 31.63 799 v WI at Jamaica 2014
Selected rankings
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
14 (+3) Peter Siddle Aus 646 29.87 816 v Eng at Old Trafford 2013
16 (+2) Nathan Lyon Aus 616 34.09 648 v Eng at Melbourne 2013
18 (-3) Mitchell Starc Aus 596* 31.80 627 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2015
20 ( – ) Steven Finn Eng 576 28.58 624 v NZ at Headingley 2013
21 ( – ) Ishant Sharma Ind 553 37.58 671 v WI at Dominica 2011
25 (+4) D. Prasad SL 522*! 41.22 522 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015
30 (+4) Moeen Ali Eng 457* 36.04 480 v Aus at Cardiff 2015
39 (+42) Amit Mishra Ind 400*! 36.63 400 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015
41 (+1) Ben Stokes Eng 390*! 40.55 390 v Aus at The Oval 2015
44 (+3) Umesh Yadav Ind 378* 38.26 412 v Aus at Melbourne 2014
59 (+1) T. Kaushal SL 295*! 40.21 295 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015
71 (+36) Mitchell Marsh Aus 243*! 34.77 243 v Eng at The Oval 2015
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Ranking
1 ( – ) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 384 419 v Zim at Khulna 2014
2 ( – ) R. Ashwin Ind 341 419 v WI at Mumbai 2013
3 ( – ) V. Philander SA 337*/ 376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
4 ( – ) Stuart Broad Eng 294 382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012
5 ( – ) M. Johnson Aus 263 384 v Eng at Cardiff 2009
