India skipper Virat Kohli has ended second successive year as No.1 batter in International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings for batsmen.

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Kohli, who had pipped Steve Smith to reclaim the top spot earlier this month, finished the year 2019 with 928 rating points to his name while the Australian is 17 points behind him at No. 2.

Notably, Smith had dethroned Virat from the pinnacle after amassing 774 runs from four Ashes Tests in August-September.

However, Kohli’s brilliance in the home series against South Africa and Bangladesh took him to the top spot once again while Smith failed to sustain his high standards against Pakistan and New Zealand down under. Smith aggregated 40 runs in two Tests against Pakistan and has managed 151 runs from the first two games versus New Zealand.

Virat Kohli, who is on the 13th spot in the list of top-scorers in 2019, has scored 612 runs from 8 matches. Australia's Marnus Labuschagne is heading the list with 1104 runs while Smith has managed 965 runs in 8 Tests.

It is pertinent to mention here that Virat has also finished the year 2018 as numero uno batsman. He had scored 1322 runs from 13 Tests at an average of 55.08 with five centuries last year.