Indian captain Virat Kohli moves past West Indies legend Brian Lara in the all-time ICC Rankings for Test Batsmen following his performance in the third Test against South Africa in Johannesburg.

Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah achieve career-high rankings

ICC Cricketer of the Year 2017 Virat Kohli has moved ahead of ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Brian Lara in the all-time list of batsmen with highest-ever ranking points in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, which were updated today following the conclusion of the Johannesburg Test.

Second-ranked Kohli had started the third and final Test on 900 points and earned 12 points following contributions of 54 and 41 in his side’s 63 runs victory. This means he is now on 912 points and in 26th position on the 31-batsman list, which is headed by Don Bradman (961 points).

Number-one ranked Steve Smith of Australia is second on the all-time list with 947 points.

Kohli, while moving from 31st to 26th position, has leapfrogged Lara (911), Kevin Pietersen (909), Hashim Amla (907), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (901) and Michael Clarke (900).

Kohli now has his compatriot and ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Sunil Gavaskar firmly within his sights, who had achieved 916 points following The Oval Test against England in 1979. Kohli will now aim to gain five points and move ahead of Gavaskar either in the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June or during the five-Test series against England in August/September.

Batsmen to improve their rankings after the Johannesburg Test include Amla in seventh (up by one place), Dean Elgar in 12th (up by two places), Ajinkya Rahane in 18th (up by five places), while batsmen to head in the wrong direction are Faf du Plessis in 14th (down by two places), Lokesh Rahul in 20th (down by two places), Quinton de Kock in 27th (down by seven places) and Aiden Markram in 48th (down by 10 places).

There is no change in the top five of the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers as James Anderson comfortably leads Kagiso Rabada, Ravindra Jadeja, Josh Hazlewood and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Bhuveshwar Kumar moved up two places in the bowling rankings to reach the top 20 for the first time

The only bowlers inside the top 20 to improve their rankings include Morne Morkel, who has moved up two places to ninth, and Mohammed Shami, who has lifted to a career-best 15th position after earning two places.

India’s trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are also on the charge.

Kumar has entered the top 20 in 20th position for the first time in his career after lifting two places, Sharma is now in 26th spot after rising three places and Bumrah is on a career-high 46th position after vaulting 36 places.

Kumar and Shami have also improved their rankings in the all-rounders’ list, which is headed by Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan. Kumar has risen eight places to join Rabada in 12th position and Shami has moved from 27th to 17th.

List of batsmen with 900 or more ranking points:

BATSMEN Team POINTS D.G. Bradman AUS 961 S.P.D. Smith AUS 947 L. Hutton ENG 945 R.T. Ponting AUS 942 J.B. Hobbs ENG 942 P.B.H. May ENG 941 G.S. Sobers WI 938 K.C. Sangakkara SL 938 I.V.A. Richards WI 938 C.L. Walcott WI 938 J.H. Kallis SA 935 M.L. Hayden AUS 935 A.B. de Villiers SA 935 Mohammad Yousuf PAK 933 R.G. Pollock SA 927 E.D. Weekes WI 927 K.D. Walters AUS 922 A.D. Nourse SA 922 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 921 R.N. Harvey AUS 921 J.E. Root ENG 917 D.C.S. Compton ENG 917 S.M. Gavaskar IND 916 G.A. Headley WI 915 K.F. Barrington ENG 914 V.Kohli IND 912 B.C. Lara WI 911 K.P. Pietersen ENG 909 H.M. Amla SA 907 S. Chanderpaul WI 901 M.J. Clarke AUS 900

MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings (as on 28 January, following Johannesburg Test)

BATSMEN (top 20)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Average Highest Rating 1 ( - ) Steve Smith Australia 947! 63.75 947 v Eng at Sydney 2018 2 ( - ) Virat Kohli India 912! 53.40 912 v SA at Johannesburg 2018 3 ( - ) Joe Root England 881 53.28 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015 4 ( - ) Kane Williamson New Zealand 855 50.62 893 v Aus at Perth 2015 5 ( - ) David Warner Australia 827 48.77 880 v NZ at Perth 2015 6 ( - ) Cheteshwar Pujara India 810 50.51 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017 7 (+1) Hashim Amla South Africa 771 49.08 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013 8 (-1) Azhar Ali Pakistan 755 46.62 787 v Aus at Melbourne 2016 9 ( - ) Dinesh Chandimal Sri Lanka 743! 43.94 743 v Ind at Delhi 2017 10 ( - ) Alastair Cook England 742 46.35 874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012 11 ( - ) Ross Taylor New Zealand 738 48.04 871 v Win at Hamilton 2013 12 (+2) Dean Elgar South Africa 736 42.07 740 v NZ at Dunedin 2017 13 ( - ) AB de Villiers South Africa 699 49.92 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014 14 (-2) Faf du Plessis South Africa 697 45.10 734 v Ind at Centurion 2018 15 ( - ) Jonny Bairstow England 692 39.12 772 v SA at Old Trafford 2017 16 ( - ) Kraigg Braithwaite West Indies 690 37.43 701 v Eng at Headingley 2017 17 ( - ) Usman Khawaja Australia 685 45.80 747 v Pak at Sydney 2017 18= (+1) Shaun Marsh Australia 660! 40.87 660 v Eng at Sydney 2018 (+5) Ajinkya Rahane India 660 43.68 825 v NZ at Indore 2016 20 (-2) KL Rahul India 657* 40.50 761 v SL at Pallekele 2017

BOWLERS (top 20)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Average Highest Rating 1 ( - ) James Anderson England 887 27.40 896 v Win at Lord's 2017 2 ( - ) Kagiso Rabada South Africa 875 22.04 888 v Ind at Cape Town 2018 3 ( - ) Ravindra Jadeja India 844 23.73 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017 4 ( - ) Josh Hazlewood Australia 814 25.77 863 v Ind at Bengaluru 2017 5 ( - ) R Ashwin India 803 25.56 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016 6 ( - ) Rangana Herath Sri Lanka 799 28.04 867 v Zim at Harare 2016 7 ( - ) Vernon Philander South Africa 791 21.85 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013 8 ( - ) Neil Wagner New Zealand 784 27.87 785 v Win at Wellington 2017 9 (+2) Morne Morkel South Africa 773 28.08 776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011 10= (-1) Nathan Lyon Australia 769 31.64 774 v Eng at Adelaide 2017 (-1) Mitchell Starc Australia 769 27.73 805 v Pak at Brisbane 2016 12 (+1) Trent Boult New Zealand 725 28.56 825 v Eng at Lord's 2015 13 (-1) Dale Steyn South Africa 722 22.32 909 v Win at Centurion 2014 14 ( - ) Yasir Shah Pakistan 704 29.44 878 v Eng at Lord's 2016 15 (+2) M Shami India 703! 28.90 703 v SA at Johannesburg 2018 16 (-1) Stuart Broad England 683 29.33 880 v SA at Johannesburg 2016 17 (-1) Tim Southee New Zealand 682 31.45 799 v Win at Jamaica 2014 18 ( - ) Shakib Al Hasan Bangaldesh 668 32.35 705 v Aus at Mirpur 2017 19 ( - ) Keshav Maharaj South Africa 634* 26.78 695 v Zim at Port Elizabeth 2017 20 (+2) B Kumar India 626*! 26.09 626 v SA at Johannesburg 2018

ALL-ROUNDERS (top five)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Highest Rating 1 ( - ) Shakib Al Hasan Bangladesh 438 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017 2 ( - ) Ravindra Jadeja India 391 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017 3 ( - ) R Ashwin India 368 493 v Eng at Mohali 2016 4 ( - ) Ben Stokes England 358/* 396 v Win at Lord's 2017 5 ( - ) Vernon Philander South Africa 322 376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014

*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