Australia claims No. 1 Test spot to break India's five-year summit streak in ICC annual rankings

Australia broke India’s five-year-long streak of being the top-rated Test team as they jump to the first spot in the latest ICC annual rankings of all formats. Under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, India had been ruling the No. 1 position since 2017 until last year. India is currently second in the rankings as they stand below the Pat Cummins-led Australia.

In the yearly update, Australia, who trounced England 4-0 in January in the Ashes at home, have risen from 119 to 128 rating points. Meanwhile, the rankings include all series played since May 2019. The series conducted before May 20, 2021 are weighted 50% and the succeeding series are weighted 100%.

India finished on top in annual rankings for five consecutive years

Kohli led India in Tests for seven years, and his final game as the Test skipper ended in a defeat against South Africa, but his achievements have been enormous. He is the fourth most successful captain in the history of the format, just behind cricket greats Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and Steve Waugh.

Kohli was India’s most successful Test captain as he led the team to 40 victories in 68 matches, the most by any Indian captain. His captaincy career began in 2014 when he took over for MS Dhoni in the first Test of the series in Australia, which India lost by 48 runs.

Kohli transformed India into the world’s top Test cricket team since the end of the Australian series 2014/15. Under his leadership, India won all 11 Test series at home, and he led India’s first-ever series triumph in Australia in 2018/19, which is still considered to be a historic moment. He scored 5864 runs in 68 Test matches at an average of 54.80 as the Test captain.

After a succession of strong performances at home, India concluded the 2021-22 season as the world’s top-ranked T20I squad, stretching their margin over second-placed England from one to five points. While India and Australia rule the T20I and ODI formats respectively, the ODI throne is held by New Zealand.