JOE ROOT JUMPS TO THE NO 1 SPOT – BABAR STAYS IN THE TOP FIVE

LATEST ICC TEST RANKINGS:

England’s star batsman, Joe Root after his brilliant century in the Ashes Test match rises to the #1 spot in the latest ICC test rankings.

Marnus Labuschange, the star Australian batter was the Number 1 Test batsman in the world for a long time but now after the latest rankings update, Joe Root has ended his reign as the Number 1 Test batsman and now holds the top spot in the ICC Test Rankings.

Australian top-order batsman, Marnus Labuschange was ranked as the Number 1 Test batsman last year on the back of some impressive performances but now after some low scores and exceptional performances from Joe Root in the Ashes series has dethroned Marnus Labuschange from the Number 1 ICC Test Rankings.

Joe Root scored a brilliant century in the first innings of the Test match, he scored an unbeaten 118 runs and a knock of 46 runs in the second innings during the first Ashes test match, even though his runs came in a losing cause after a thriller last night but still, these runs were enough to earn 887 rating points and this helped Joe Root to get back at the top of the ICC Test Rankings.

On the other hand, Marnus Labuschange faced some serious consequences for his two back-to-back failures in the first Ashes Test match, he scored a duck and a low score of 13 runs in the two innings of the Test match, he now stands at 877 rating points from more than 900 points and is dropped to the Number 3 in the latest ICC Test Rankings.

Kane Williamson, the right-handed batsman from New Zealand has jumped two spots in the latest ICC Test Rankings, he is now Number 2 in the ICC Test Rankings with 883 rating points – only four less than Joe Root to become the Number 1 Test batsman in the world.

Travis Head, another Australian batter is also in the top ICC Rankings, he is the Number 4 ranked ICC test batsman in the world after Marnus Labuschange with 877 rating points.

Babar Azam, even though hasn’t played any Test match for a long time but still has retained his place in the top 5 spots of the ICC Test batters rankings. He stands at the Number 5 position in the ICC Rankings with 862 rating points.

Steven Smith was also in the race to become the Number 1 Test batsman after some bad performances by Marnus Labuschange but Steven Smith has also dropped four spots in the ICC Test Rankings and is now at the Number 6 spot – he faced a cut of 10 rating points and now stands at 861 rating points in the latest Test batting Rankings.

Usman Khawaja who won the Player of the Match award for his heroics in the first Ashes test for Australia has risen to his career-best rankings of seventh spot, he stands at the Number 7 spot with 836 rating points in the latest ICC Test Rankings.

• THERE IS STILL MUCH TO SEE IN THE TEST RANKINGS FOR BATSMEN AS THERE IS A DIFFERENCE OF JUST A FEW RATING POINTS BETWEEN ALL THE TOP 6 RANKED BATTERS, ANYONE WHO CAN PERFORM BETTER CAN GET TO THE #1 TEST RANKINGS IN THE NEAR FUTURE AS THE RANKINGS ARE UPDATED WEEKLY.

There were no changes in the ICC Test Rankings for bowlers as the list is led by the Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin – the second best bowler in the ICC Rankings is James Anderson who is there with 829 rating points but there is not much difference in rating points between James Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, and Pat Cummins who are just behind each other with a difference of less than 10 rating points.

Shaheen Shah Afridi is the only Pakistani bowler who is ranked Number 7 in the ICC Test Rankings, he has rating points of 787 in the Test rankings and is the highest-ranked Test bowler of Pakistan by a margin.