India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell are back in the top 10 of the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings after fine performances in the third match of their ICC World Test Championship series played in Mumbai.
Pant, who scored 60 in the first innings and a doughty 64 in the second during a failed chase of 147, has advanced five slots to sixth, which is one off his career-best fifth position attained in July 2022. Mitchell, who was ranked third in September this year before slipping down the table, has advanced eight places to seventh position after scores of 82 and 21.
Player of the Series Will Young’s scores of 71 and 51 have helped him jump 29 rungs to 44th position with a career-best 550 rating points while Glenn Phillips is another New Zealand batter to advance, from 45th to 42nd position.
Shubman Gill’s first innings score of 90 has helped him progress from 20th to 16th but India opener Yashaswi Jaiswal has slipped to fourth position and former captain Virat Kohli finds himself out of the world’s top 20 Test batters for the first time since December 2014 – after nearly 10 years.
The latest men’s weekly rankings update also considers performances in the second Test between
Bangladesh and South Africa in Chattogram in which three players from South Africa scored maiden centuries in the same innings, only the second such instance in Test history, and all of them gained handsomely – Tony de Zorzi (up 32 places to 38th), Tristan Stubbs (up 27 places to 71st) and Wiaan Mulder (up 19 places to 75th).
In the bowling rankings, left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja of India and Player of the Match Ajaz Patel of New Zealand have made headway after their performances at Wankhede Stadium.
Jadeja’s third 10-wicket match haul has helped him move up from eighth to sixth and past the 800-point mark while Patel’s 11 wickets have taken him to a career-best 22nd position with a 12-rung jump.
Another left-arm spinner, South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj, too has moved up the rankings – from 23rd to 19th position – after his second innings haul of five for 59.
Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, who finished with a five-for in the first innings, consolidated his position at the top of the table by gaining 11 rating points.
India all-rounder Washington Sundar has moved up all three lists while Nayeem Hasan of Bangladesh, Ish Sodhi of New Zealand and Akash Deep of India have progressed in the bowling rankings.
India’s 3-0 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand sees them slip to second position in the ICC World Test Championship table. Australia are now on top as per the percentage points that determine the qualifiers, while South Africa and New Zealand have come back strongly.
Australia (62.50), India (58.33), Sri Lanka (55.56), New Zealand (54.55) and South Africa (54.17) are all in contention with seven series left in the third edition of the World Test Championship.
Milan Call Back
Abbas Ali Baig was the first Indian cricketer to be kissed during a Test match – When Abbas Ali Baig reached a half-century in the third Test match against Australia at the Brabourne Stadium in 1960, a pretty young girl ran all the way from the North Stand to greet the batsman. She kissed Baig on his cheek.
burst nibbler
Sport Trivia: At which race course is the Durban July run every year? Answer: Greyville – The Durban July, which was first run in 1897, is South Africa\’s equivalent of Britain\’s Royal Ascot. The race takes place over 2.2 kms and is run on the first Saturday of July each year at the Greyville Race course.