New highs for Root and Pant in ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings

New Delhi, July 6: England batter Joe Root has attained career-best rating points and India’s Rishabh Pant is at a career-best ranking after the latest weekly update to the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings, carried out after the rescheduled fifth Test of the ICC World Test Championship series that was played in Birmingham. Former captain Root, who, along with Jonny Bairstow, saw his team to a seven-wicket victory over India and helped draw the five-match series 2-2, has consolidated his position at the top of the rankings. Root is on 923 rating points after smashing an unbeaten 142 in the second innings, six points more than his previous best attained in August 2015. He has a huge 44-point lead over second-placed Marnus Labuschagne, with Steve Smith and Babar Azam occupying third and fourth places in the list. Pant, who scored 146 and 57 in the match, is now the highest ranked batter from India after gaining six slots to reach a career-best fifth position. The wicketkeeper-batter’s previous best was seventh position, which he occupied between March and August last year. Bairstow continued his phenomenal run from the preceding three-Test series against New Zealand in which he scored 394 runs, with twin centuries at Edgbaston – 106 and 114 not out - and is up 11 slots to 10th position. He is now just three shy of his career-best seventh position attained in August 2017 during a home series against South Africa. India batter Cheteshwar Pujara’s defiant second innings knock of 66 has helped him gain three slots to reach 24th position. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s scores of 104 and 23 have helped him progress eight slots to equal his career-best 34th position attained in January 2021. England fast bowler James Anderson has gained one slot to reach sixth position after taking six wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the first innings, while captain Ben Stokes is up two places to 43rd in the latest update that includes the first WTC series match between Sri Lanka and Australia. Australia batter Cameron Green has attained a career-best 30th position after his Player of the Match effort of 77 in the first innings that helped set up a 10-wicket victory in the low-scoring match in Galle while his compatriot Alex Carry is up to 58th for his useful knock of 45. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon has moved from 18th to 13th among bowlers after finishing with nine wickets in the match. Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella is up one place to 39th among batters after his first innings half-century while off-spinner Ramesh Mendis is up five places to 49th among bowlers after taking four wickets in the first innings.