ICC Test Rankings: Mitchell Starc achieves career-best fifth position
Markram's scores of 32 and 143 helped him reach a career-best 19th place; Marsh brothers gain significant rise as well.
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Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc has reached a career-best fifth position among bowlers in the ICC Test Player Rankings after his player-of-the-match performance in the Durban Test against South Africa helped his side win by 118 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
The 28-year-old Starc finished with a match haul of nine for 109, enabling him to overtake South Africa’s new-ball bowlers Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander among others, eclipsing his previous best sixth position that he enjoyed in December 2016.
Further, the left-hander’s 42 runs in the Test have not only helped him gain three slots to reach 74th position among batsmen but have also helped him make it to the top-five among all-rounders. He is now on 312 points, 35 less than his tally when he was fourth on the all-rounders’ list in August 2016.
Other Australia players to have gained in the latest rankings update include the Marsh brothers. Shaun Marsh has reached a career-best 16th position among batsmen with his 73 runs in the match while his brother Mitchell has moved up to 43rd place from his 56th rank before the Test, to also reach his highest ranking among batsmen thus far. Mitchell has also gained one slot to reach 58th slot among bowlers.
Markram gained 28 places
For South Africa, Aiden Markram’s scores of 32 and 143 have helped him gain 28 slots to reach a career-best 19th place. Markram, who had led South Africa to victory in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in 2014, has had a phenomenal rise as he sees himself in the top-20 after only his seventh Test, notching three centuries and two scores in the 90s.
In other movements, AB de Villiers’ first innings score of 71 not out was enough to pull him up one place to 12th position while Quinton de Kock has gained three slots to reach 22nd rank after scores of 20 and 83 in the match. In the rankings for bowlers, Keshav Maharaj’s haul of nine wickets in the match has helped him rise up to 18th rank.
ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 6 March, after the Durban Test):
Batsmen (top 10)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Steve Smith | Aus | 947! | 63.41 | 947 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 2 | ( – ) | Virat Kohli | Ind | 912! | 53.40 | 912 v SA at Johannesburg 2018 |
| 3 | ( – ) | Joe Root | Eng | 881 | 53.28 | 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015 |
| 4 | ( – ) | K. Williamson | NZ | 855 | 50.62 | 893 v Aus at Perth 2015 |
| 5 | ( – ) | David Warner | Aus | 833 | 48.63 | 880 v NZ at Perth 2015 |
| 6 | ( – ) | C. Pujara | Ind | 810 | 50.51 | 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017 |
| 7 | (+1) | Azhar Ali | Pak | 755 | 46.62 | 787 v Aus at Melbourne 2016 |
| 8 | (+1) | Alastair Cook | Eng | 742 | 46.35 | 874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012 |
| 9 | (+1) | Ross Taylor | NZ | 739 | 48.04 | 871 v Win at Hamilton 2013 |
| 10 | (-3) | Hashim Amla | SA | 734 | 48.58 | 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013 |
Other selected rankings
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 12 | (+1) | AB de Villiers | SA | 716 | 50.05 | 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014 |
| 16 | (+2) | Shaun Marsh | Aus | 675! | 40.69 | 675 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 19 | (+28) | Aiden Markram | SA | 659*! | 57.91 | 659 v Aus at Durban 2018 |
| 22 | (+3) | Quinton de Kock | SA | 653 | 39.81 | 802 v NZ at Hamilton 2017 |
| 43 | (+13) | Mitchell Marsh | Aus | 551! | 30.44 | 551 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 74 | (+3) | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 388 | 23.06 | 446 v Ind at Pune 2017 |
| 82 | (+6) | Tim Paine | Aus | 356* | 37.00 | 387 v Ind at Bengaluru 2010 |
| 93= | (+22) | C. Bancroft | Aus | 331* | 26.33 | 342 v Eng at Brisbane 2017 |
Bowlers (top 10)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | James Anderson | Eng | 887 | 27.40 | 896 v Win at Lord’s 2017 |
| 2 | ( – ) | Kagiso Rabada | SA | 873 | 22.15 | 888 v Ind at Cape Town 2018 |
| 3 | ( – ) | Ravindra Jadeja | Ind | 844 | 23.73 | 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Josh Hazlewood | Aus | 812 | 25.69 | 863 v Ind at Bengaluru 2017 |
| 5 | (+5) | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 805! | 26.94 | 805 v SA at Durban 2018 |
| 6 | (-1) | R. Ashwin | Ind | 803 | 25.56 | 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016 |
| 7 | (-1) | Vernon Philander | SA | 786 | 22.00 | 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013 |
| 8 | (-1) | Neil Wagner | NZ | 784 | 27.87 | 785 v Win at Wellington 2017 |
| 9 | (-1) | Rangana Herath | SL | 777 | 28.18 | 867 v Zim at Harare 2016 |
| 10= | (-1) | Morne Morkel | SA | 755 | 28.20 | 776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011 |
| ( – ) | Nathan Lyon | Aus | 755 | 31.78 | 774 v Eng at Adelaide 2017 |
Other selected rankings
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 18 | (+1) | Keshav Maharaj | SA | 681* | 26.54 | 695 v Zim at Port Elizabeth 2017 |
| 58 | (+1) | Mitchell Marsh | Aus | 254* | 41.33 | 349 v Win at Melbourne 2015 |
| 87 | (+4) | Dean Elgar | SA | 128* | 42.28 | 256 v Ind at Nagpur 2015 |
All-rounders (top five)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Pts | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Shakib Al Hasan | Ban | 421 | 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017 |
| 2 | ( – ) | Ravindra Jadeja | Ind | 391 | 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017 |
| 3 | ( – ) | R. Ashwin | Ind | 368 | 493 v Eng at Mohali 2016 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Ben Stokes | Eng | 358/* | 396 v Win at Lord’s 2017 |
| 5 | (+2) | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 312 | 347 v Ind at Pune 2017 |
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