ICC Test Rankings: South Africa move up to fifth after win over India

South Africa moved up to fifth place on the ICC Test rankings thanks to their 2-1 series win over India.

At the outset of the series India were ranked number one and South Africa were esteemed sixth.

ICC Test rankings movers

Australia have moved to the top of the ICC Test team rankings thanks to their 4-0 Ashes series win, while India drop to third and New Zealand are second.

Australia’s Travis Head has reached a career-best fifth position among batters in the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings after his Player of the Match performance in the fifth match of their ICC World Test Championship series against England.

Head, who scored 101 in the first innings in Hobart to finish with a series topping 357 runs that also got him clinch the Player of the Series award, has advanced seven spots to joint-fifth with Rohit Sharma. Head’s previous best ranking was the 10th position that he occupied last month.

All-rounder Cameron Green is another Australia player to gain after the 146-run victory that helped Australia win the series 4-0 and climb to second in the WTC Points Table. Green is up 23 places to joint-66th after his scores of 74 and 23 and has also moved up 13 places to 62nd in the bowlers’ list. Scott Boland has moved from 49th to 43rd with four wickets in the match.

England opener Zak Crawley has progressed nine places to 68th after scores of 18 and 36. Among their bowlers, Stuart Broad has moved up two places to 12th position after finishing with six wickets in the match while Ollie Robinson (up one place to 24th) and Mark Wood (up seven places to 31st) have also advanced.

Petersen on the charge

In the latest weekly update that also takes into account the third match of the South Africa-India series in Cape Town that the host side won by seven wickets to clinch the WTC series 2-1, Keegan Petersen has shot up 68 places to 33rd after match-winning scores of 72 and 82. He scored the maximum runs to claim the Player of the Series award, his 276-run aggregate helping him surge up after starting the series in 158th position.

Temba Bavuma (up seven places to 28th) and Rassie van der Dussen (up12 places to 43rd) are the other South Africa batters to move up while fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada (up two places to third) and Lungi Ngidi (up six places to 21st) have also made notable progress.

Virat Kohli has moved up two places to seventh after scores of 79 and 29 in his last match as Test captain. Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten century in the second innings has lifted him 10 places to 14th. Fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah’s six wickets have lifted him back to the top 10.