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Dubai, October 7
India opener Rohit Sharma, who became the first player to score a century in each innings of his maiden Test as opener, jumped to a career-best 17th position in the ICC Test batsmen rankings.
Rohit, who now has five centuries from 28 Tests, gained a whopping 36 spots after his knocks of 176 and 127 in the first Test against South Africa in Visakhapatnam helped India win by 203 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Mayank Agarwal has also attained a career-best 25th position after his first innings double century lifted him 38 places.
Captain Virat Kohli, who retained his second spot, has dropped below the 900-point mark for the first time since January 2018. He is now on 899 points, 38 behind top-ranked Steve Smith of Australia.
Among the bowlers, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback to the top-10 after his match haul of eight wickets, moving up four places from 14th to 10th. He has also moved into the top-5 among all-rounders. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami has reached a career-best 710 points that took him from 18th to 16th, two below his career-best 14th rank, while Ravindra Jadeja has leapfrogged Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan to take second position among the all-rounders.
India have gained 40 points in the ICC World Test Championship table after the win at Visakhapatnam and are now on 160 points, having won full 120 points for a 2-0 series win in the West Indies earlier this year. New Zealand and Sri Lanka are on 60 points each after their 1-1 series draw while Australia and England are on 56 points each after their 2-2 series draw in a five-match Ashes series. — PTI
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