After the second England-Australia Test at Lord’s, Australia batter Steve Smith has risen quickly to the top of the Men’s Test Player Rankings, but Kane Williamson has surpassed Joe Root to take the top spot.
Smith’s ‘player of the match’ performance of 110 and 34 moves him up to second place. Smith was last at the top in June 2021, when he briefly replaced Williamson before being surpassed by the New Zealand batsman.
Root fell to fifth place after scoring only 10 and 18, allowing Williamson to reclaim the top spot. This is Williamson’s sixth spell at the top, having initially obtained the position in November 2015 and last in August 2021.
After the current weekly update, Smith sits just one point behind Williamson’s 883 rating points, with third-placed Marnus Labuschagne (873) and Travis Head also separated by one point.
Following scores of 98 and 83 in the second Ashes Test, England hitter Ben Duckett has risen 24 places to into the top 20 for the first time in his career, while captain Ben Stokes has risen nine places to 23rd following a courageous 155 in the second innings.
Indian players ICC Test Player Rankings
However, there where no Indian batters to be seen in the Top 10 apart from Rishabh Pant, who sits at 10th. The Indian wicket-keeper was out injured during the World Test Championship final 2023.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins has risen to second place among bowlers with four wickets, while left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc has risen two places to 14th with six. Opener David Warner is ranked 26th among batters after hitting 66 and 25.
Ireland batter Harry Tector has moved up one spot to joint-sixth in the ODI Player Rankings after scoring 60 against Nepal in the seventh-place play-off match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 in Harare.
The two players to advance up the batting rankings are Scott Edwards of the Netherlands (up five places to 35th) and Pathum Nissanka of Sri Lanka (up eight places to 38th).
Sandeep Lamichhane of Nepal, who took three wickets against the UAE, has risen five places to 24th in the bowling rankings.
After strong performances in the Qualifier, Sri Lanka off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana (up 21 places to 32nd) and Scotland seam bowler Chris Sole (up 23 places to 39th) have both made significant progress.
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