A superb ‘Man of the Match’ performance from Marnus Labuschagne in the second Ashes Test has seen him climb to the top of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test batting rankings. Labuschagne who scored 103 and 51 runs in the first and second innings respectively in the pink-ball Test has dethroned England captain Joe Root from the top. Pakistan captain Babar Azam has also reclaimed his top spot in T20Is.
After guiding his side to the win, it is the first time that Labuschagne has claimed the top spot in the ICC Test Player Rankings for batters. The England captain who scored 62 and 24 runs in Adelaide has 897 rating points, while the Australian has 912 rating points.
The list also features Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith (884) and Kane Williamson (879) in third and fourth spot respectively. The list also features a couple of Indians, with Rohit Sharma in fifth and Virat Kohli in seventh. The newly appointed Indian Test vice-captain Rohit will miss the Test series against South Africa, while Kohli will have his eyes on getting big runs under his belt and climbing the rankings.
Pakistan captain Azam has once again climbed to the top of the T20I rankings after staying away from the summit for a week. With single-digit scores in the opening two T20Is, Azam dropped to third. However, his performance in the final T20I has seen him once again claim the top spot piping Dawid Malan of England. The English batter will hardly be involved in the T20I series as his side are playing in the Ashes.
In Test bowling rankings, Australia captain Pat Cummins occupies the top spot with 904 rating points. The list features Ravichandran Ashwin in the second spot with 883 points. Ashwin remains the only Indian to feature in the top 10. Both Ashwin and Cummins will be featuring in their respective Boxing Day Test (December 26) encounters. India take on South Africa in Centurion while Australia are in action against England in the third Ashes Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
