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South Africa defeated Australia by five wickets in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) at Lord's. With this, the side ended their 27-year wait for an ICC trophy and also got rid of the dreaded 'chokers' tag. One of the biggest catalysts to their victory was batter Aiden Markram, who played a fantastic knock of 136 with his side chasing the target of 282. He was also adjudged as the Player of the Match for his terrific innings.
Following his century, Markram made a big jump of seven places in the latest ICC Test batter rankings. He ranked on the 11th spot with 723 rating points, right behind New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell, who gained two places and made the cut into the top 10 with 725 points.
Markram also took two scalps in the WTC final
Markram also clinched two wickets during the all-important encounter with one of them being the massive scalp of Steve Smith in the first innings. The Australian was batting on 66 at that time and was looking set to play a big knock, however he was stopped in his tracks by Markram. He also picked up the wicket of Josh Hazlewood for 17 runs in the second innings.
This saw the 30-year-old leapfrog 44 places and end up at the 65th spot in the ICC Test all-rounder rankings. Alongside him, David Bedingham, who had played gritty cameos of 45 and 21 for South Africa in the first and second innings respectively in the final, climbed 17 places to reach the 40th spot on the Test batter rankings with 554 points, the same as Australia's Cameron Green.
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Indian batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant kept their place in the top ten and placed on the fourth and eighth position respectively. Shubman Gill dropped a place and went down to the 25th position while Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul ended up on the 46th and 47th place respectively.
Meanwhile, South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada, who racked a total of nine scalps during the WTC final, maintained his place on the second position in the Test bowler rankings. Marco Jansen also remained on the seventh place while Lungi Ngidi's spell of 3/38 in Australia's second innings saw him climb seven places and reach the 40th position, level on 526 points with Sri Lanka's Lahiru Kumara and Pakistan's Naseem Shah.
Elsewhere, Australia skipper Pat Cummins' brilliant six-wicket haul against South Africa saw him maintain his third position in the rankings while Mitchell Starc, who picked up a total of five scalps in the final, gained a place and made it to the tenth spot.
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