Kane Williamson climbs to second spot in ICC Test rankings

Cheteshwar Pujara is ranked fourth after his heroics in Adelaide.

Published - 11 Dec 2018, 11:24 IST | Updated - 11 Dec 2018, 11:24 IST

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New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson moved up one spot to the No.2 in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen and is now behind only India’s Virat Kohli, while Cheteshwar Pujara broke into top five of the rankings after his match-winning effort in Adelaide.

Williamson, who scored 89 and 139 at Abu Dhabi to put New Zealand on course for a historic Test series win against Pakistan, moved to a career-highest total of 913 rating points – seven behind India skipper Virat Kohli – becoming the first from his country to get past 900 rating points on the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for batsmen.

Henry Nicholls, who also scored a century in the same innings, jumped eight places to break into the top 10 at No.9, while BJ Watling moved up four places to No.22.

For Pakistan, valiant centurions Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq made gains. Ali rose two places to No.10 and Shafiq climbed one spot to No.21. Babar Azam, who made a fighting 51 in Pakistan’s second innings, also rose three places to No.35.

However, all of Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez and Imam-ul-Haq suffered failures and it reflected in the rankings update. The retiring Hafeez slipped seven spots to No.65, while skipper Ahmed and opener Imam lost one place each to reach No.32 and No.97 respectively.

Update after Adelaide Test

After his exploits at Adelaide with knocks of 123 and 71, Cheteshwar Pujara – crucial to India’s opening victory at Adelaide – moved past Joe Root and David Warner to sit pretty at No.4. Even Ajinkya Rahane made a rise of two spots to the 17th position after his knock of 70 in India’s second innings. After knocks of 25 and 28, Rishabh Pant too made a big jump of seven places to No. 59.

India’s openers KL Rahul and M Vijay, as well as middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, lost footing. Rahul slipped two positions to No. 26, Vijay three to No.45 and Rohit dropped four places to No.53.

Australia’s had mixed results in the update. Usman Khawaja slipped three spots to 13th, and Aaron Finch dropped to No.89 – a drop of a whopping 89 places. Yet, Shaun Marsh rose six places to 38th, Tim Paine four spots to No.55 and Travis Head a massive 17 places to No.80. Nathan Lyon was rewarded for his unbeaten knocks of 24 and 38 with a 17-place leap to no.130.