ICC Rankings: Rohit attains career-best ranking, moves to eighth spot
Feb 28, 2021
Dubai [UAE], February 28 : India opener Rohit Sharma has progressed six places to a career-best eighth position in the ICC Men's Test Player Rankings after a fine performance in the low-scoring third Test against England in Ahmedabad that the home side won by 10 wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.
Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin have also made rapid strides while England's Joe Root and Jack Leach too have moved up after shining with the ball in Ahmedabad.
Rohit top-scored in the first innings with 66 and remained unbeaten on 25 in the second to move ahead of compatriot Cheteshwar Pujara among others. His rating points aggregate is 742, 20 more than his best of 722 in October 2019 when he was ranked 10th.
Player of the match Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin have also made solid gains after helping carve out a crucial win that helped India remain in contention for the ICC World Test Championship final.
In bowling rankings, Ashwin has moved four spots and he now sits at the third spot in the Test rankings.
Left-arm spinner Patel's 11-wicket match haul has helped him gain 30 slots to reach 38th position while off-spinner Ashwin's seven wickets have lifted him four places to third position.
England spinner Jack Leach has entered the top 30 for the first time, moving up three places to 28th after taking four wickets. Captain Joe Root's maiden five-wicket haul has lifted him 16 places to 72nd among bowlers while he is now joint-13th among all-rounders. Opener Zak Crawley's knock of 53 in the first innings has helped him advance 15 places to 46th in what was the only notable gain for any of their batsmen.
Kane Williamson is currently ranked as the number one Test batsmen while Pat Cummins is the number one rated bowler in the rankings. Virat Kohli is at the fifth spot in batting rankings, while Cheteshwar Pujara has slipped to the tenth spot.
