Australia defeated South Africa in the first Test at Durban in a ruthless fashion. Despite a stoic resistance from Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock; Australia demolished South Africa by 118 runs.
The victory has become sweeter for the Australia players as Mitchell Starc’s 9 wicket haul in the match took him to a career best fifth position in the latest ICC Test Bowlers’ Rankings. Starc also made an appearance in the ICC Top five Tests all-rounders list at no.5.
Mitchell Marsh, meanwhile, has risen to 43rd in the batting rankings, a career best, thanks to his innings of 96. Brother Shaun is up to 16th after scoring a total of 73 runs on a difficult surface.
Aiden Markram jumped 28 spots to 19th position in the Test batting rankings after his brilliant century in the fourth innings.
ICC TEST PLAYER RANKINGS - BATSMEN
1) Steve Smith
2) Virat Kohli
3) Joe Root
4) Kane Williamson
5) David Warner
6) Cheteshwar Pujara
7) Azhar Ali
8) Alastair Cook
9) Ross Taylor
10) Hashim Amla
ICC TEST PLAYER RANKINGS - BOWLERS
1) Jimmy Anderson
2) Kagiso Rabada
3) Ravindra Jadeja
4) Josh Hazlewood
5) Mitchell Starc
6) Ravichandran Ashwin
7) Vernon Philander
8) Neil Wagner
9) Rangana Herath
10) Morne Morkel and Nathan Lyon
ICC TEST PLAYER RANKINGS - ALLROUNDERS
1) Shakib Al Hasan
2) Ravindra Jadeja
3) Ravichandran Ashwin
4) Ben Stokes
5) Mitchell Starc
