Rishabh Pant has attained new highs for an India wicket-keeper batsman in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings after his superb century in the drawn final Test in Sydney.

• The former ICC U19 Cricket World Cup star attains joint-highest ranking among batsmen by a wicketkeeper from India and highest rating points by a gloveman from his country

• Pujara, Harris, Markram and Asad among other batsmen to move up; Yadav, Lyon, Olivier and Shaheen also advance

The 21-year-old left-hander has gained 21 slots and reached 17th place, the joint-highest by a specialist India wicketkeeper along with Farokh Engineer, who did so in January 1973. Further, Pant’s aggregate of 673 rating points are the highest by an India wicketkeeper, with Dhoni having the next highest aggregate of 662 points and Engineer 619 points. Dhoni’s highest Test ranking was 19th.

Pant, a star at the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in 2016 when he scored an 18-ball half-century against Nepal, has moved into the top-20 after only his ninth Test match with an unbeaten 159. Pant had started the Australia tour in 59th place and made rapid progress, scoring 350 runs in a series that also saw him take 20 catches.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 521 runs to help beat Australia 2-1 and claim the Player of the Series award, is another batsman to gain in the latest rankings update, which also takes into account performances in the second Test between South Africa and Pakistan in Cape Town.

Pujara has gained one slot to reach third position while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (up six places to 57th) and rookie opener Mayank Agarwal (up five places to 62nd) are the others from his team to advance at the end of a historic series win.

Spinner Kuldeep Yadav has gained seven slots to reach a career-best 45th position after his figures of 5 for 99 in Australia’s first innings even as Jasprit Bumrah has held on to 16th position and Mohammed Shami has gained one place to take the 22nd slot. Jadeja has gained one place to reach fifth among bowlers and has also leapfrogged Windies captain Jason Holder into second place among all-rounders.

For Australia, opener Marcus Harris has advanced 21 places to take a career-best 69th position after a fine 79 in the first innings while off-spinner Nathan Lyon has inched up from 14th to 13th position.

South Africa’s Aiden Markram has moved back into the top 10 after his knock of 78 at Cape Town, gaining seven slots to reach 10th position. Temba Bavuma has moved into the top 30 for the first time (up five places to 26th) after his score of 75 while captain Faf du Plessis’s first-innings century has lifted him six places to 16th position.

Among their bowlers, Vernon Philander has gained one slot to reach third position while Duanne Olivier has continued his surge to move up to 32nd place from 36th.

For Pakistan, Asad Shafiq has benefitted by five places to reach 24th position after scores of 20 and 88 while Babar Azam is only one slot behind after gaining two places. Shan Masood has moved up 22 places to a career-best 65th while captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has moved up from 42nd to 37th place.

Among their bowlers, Shaheen Afridi has gained 13 slots to reach 60th place after taking four wickets in the match, which Pakistan lost by nine wickets to concede a decisive 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

There has been no change in position or points for India in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings, while Australia have lost one point but remain in fifth position.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings (as on 8 January, after the Australia-India series):

RANK TEAM POINTS 1 India 116 2 England 108 3 New Zealand 107 4 South Africa 106 5 Australia 101 6 Pakistan 92 7 Sri Lanka 91 8 West Indies 70 9 Bangladesh 69 10 Zimbabwe 13 11 Afghanistan 00 12 Ireland 00

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 8 January, after the Sydney and Cape Town Tests):

Batsmen (top 10)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Average Highest Rating 1 ( - ) Virat Kohli Ind 922 53.76 937 v Eng at Southampton 2018 2 ( - ) K. Williamson NZ 897 51.44 915 v SL at Wellington 2018 3 (+1) C. Pujara Ind 881 51.18 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017 4 (-1) Steve Smith Aus 874 61.37 947 v SA at Durban 2018 5 ( - ) Joe Root Eng 807 50.44 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015 6 ( - ) David Warner Aus 772 48.20 880 v NZ at Perth 2015 7 ( - ) Henry Nicholls NZ 763*! 43.54 763 v SL at Christchurch 2018 8 ( - ) Dean Elgar SA 727 40.96 784 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018 9 ( - ) D. Karunaratne SL 715 37.08 754 v SA at Colombo (SSC) 2018 10 (+7) Aiden Markram SA 698* 45.20 759 v Aus at Johannesburg 2018

Other selected rankings

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Average Highest Rating 11= (+2) A. Mathews SL 687 44.79 877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014 16 (+6) Faf du Plessis SA 674 42.07 734 v Ind at Centurion 2018 17 (+21) Rishabh Pant Ind 673*! 49.71 673 v Aus at Sydney 2019 24 (+5) Asad Shafiq Pak 634 39.06 758 v Eng at Lord's 2016 25 (+2) Babar Azam Pak 629*! 35.30 629 v SA at Cape Town 2019 26= (-2) Q. de Kock SA 627 36.89 802 v NZ at Hamilton 2017 (+5) T. Bavuma SA 627! 35.41 627 v Pak at Cape Town 2019 57 (+6) R. Jadeja Ind 488 32.28 511 v Win at Rajkot 2018 69 (+21) Marcus Harris Aus 446*! 36.85 446 v Ind at Sydney 2019

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Average Highest Rating 1 ( - ) K. Rabada SA 893 21.35 902 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2018 2 ( - ) J. Anderson Eng 874 26.98 903 v Ind at Lord's 2018 3= (+1) V. Philander SA 804 21.75 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013 ( - ) Pat Cummins Aus 804* 24.51 836 v Ind at Melbourne 2018 5 (+1) R. Jadeja Ind 794 23.68 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017 6 (-1) M. Abbas Pak 789* 17.90 838 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2018 7 ( - ) Trent Boult NZ 771 27.90 825 v Eng at Lord's 2015 8 (+1) Tim Southee NZ 767 29.93 799 v Win at Jamaica 2014 9 (-1) R. Ashwin Ind 763 25.43 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016 10 ( - ) Jason Holder Win 751* 28.50 766 v Ind at Hyderabad 2018

Other selected rankings

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Average Highest Rating 13 (+1) Nathan Lyon Aus 723 32.10 774 v Eng at Adelaide 2017 14 (+1) Neil Wagner NZ 721 28.88 785 v Win at Wellington 2017 22 (+1) M. Shami Ind 660 29.54 703 v SA at Johannesburg 2018 32 (+4) Duanne Olivier SA 560*! 18.81 560 v Pak at Cape Town 2019 45 (+7) Kuldeep Yadav Ind 402*! 24.12 402 v Aus at Sydney 2019 60 (+13) Shaheen Afridi Pak 274*! 31.41 274 v SA at Cape Town 2019

All-rounders (top five)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Highest Rating 1 ( - ) S. Al Hasan Ban 415 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017 2 (+1) R. Jadeja Ind 387 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017 3 (-1) Jason Holder Win 365/* 381 v Ind at Hyderabad 2018 4 ( - ) V. Philander SA 353 378 v SL at Galle 2018 5 ( - ) Ben Stokes Eng 342 396 v Win at Lord's 2017

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

!indicates career-highest rating



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