Buttler gains good ground, while Kohli returns to top

News

Cricket365
August 23, 2018

India captain Virat Kohli has returned to the top of the International Cricket Council’s rankings for Test batsman, after a Man of the Match performance against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Kohli relished a superb 97 and 103, as the Indians secured a comfortable 203-run victory in the third Test. The result halved the hosts’ lead to two-one, ahead of next week’s fourth Test in Southampton.

The talismanic right-hander has gathered a career-best 937 points – and is one away from joining the top 10 batsmen in the rankings’ history.

England’s Jos Buttler has climbed from 69th to 47th position, after a solid ton in Nottingham.

South African openers Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram have climbed to ninth and 10th position, respectively.

Elgar previously occupied 10th spot, while Markram was placed 11th. Both endured a tough stretch of form in Sri Lanka recently, as the Proteas slumped to a two-nil Test series defeat. The left-handed Elgar gathered 8, 4, 0 and 37 to the right-handed Markram’s 0, 19, 7 and 14.

The veteran Hashim Amla, meanwhile, has remained in 14th position after managing just one half-century from his last 10 Test innings. His last Test century was scored in October 2017, against Bangladesh.

In the bowling rankings, seamers Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander were fixed in second and fourth position, respectively. England’s James Anderson is in first spot.

Spinner Keshav Maharaj, too, hasn’t climbed or lost ground. He is still in 17th position, despite a record-breaking nine-wicket innings haul against the Sri Lankans in late July’s series decider.

The left-armer took a dozen wickets in the match – and 16 for the series. Former number one-ranked Dale Steyn is in 24th position, one spot ahead of India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar.