Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne ended Joe Root’s reign as the no.1 ranked Test batter thanks to his excellent outing in the first Test against West Indies in Perth recently. The ICC released their latest update to their player rankings on Wednesday, which sees Labuschagne closing in on a career-high rating.
Labuschagne hit 204 and 104* against the West Indies during the first Test in Perth and that helped the Australia No.3 take the top ranking and rise to a total of 935 rating points. This is just one point behind Labuschagne's best-ever rating of 936 that he achieved after playing in Pakistan earlier this year.
He is also on the verge of entering the top 10 ratings for batters of all time. He will get the chance to move past the likes of West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards and former India captain Virat Kohli if he can replicate his good performance in the second Test against West Indies as well.
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His teammate Steve Smith also moved past Joe Root to become the no.2 ranked Test batter, thanks to 200* in the same Test as Labuschagne. He now has 893 rating points just ahead of Pakistan captain Babar Azam (879) and Root (876).
James Anderson and fellow quick Ollie Robinson snared five wickets apiece during the epic contest and were duly rewarded with eye-catching moves inside the top 10 on the bowler charts. They also closed in on no.1 ranked bowler Pat Cummins.
Anderson improves two spots to third, while Robinson jumped to a career-high rating of 754 points and rises seven spots in total to eighth overall.
In the ODI rankings update, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan jumped four spots to sixth overall after four wickets in the final ODI against Sri Lanka, while veteran Bangladeshi spinner Shakib Al Hasan improves seven spots to ninth thanks to his fifer against India in Mirpur.
(ICC inputs)
