India opener Lokesh Rahul, who hit two half-centuries in the deciding Dharamsala Test against Australia, on Thursday jumped 11 places to a career-high rank of 11th in the latest ICC chart for Test batsmen. The 24-year-old Karnataka batsman had started the series in the 57th position and has gained 46 places over four Tests following scores of 64, 10, 90, 51, 67, 60 and 51 not out. Rahul is now India’s third highest ranked batsman after Cheteshwar Pujara (4) and Virat Kohli (5), who lost two and one place respectively. Rahul is ahead of Ajinkya Rahane (14th, up by three places) and Murali Vijay (34th, down by four places).
In the bowling table, spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin have retained the top two bowling spots, while paceman Umesh Yadav has claimed a career-high 21st position following his player of the match performance in the fourth Test. Yadav took two for 69 and three for 29 in the match, earning him a rise of five places.
In the all-rounders’ list, Jadeja replaced Ahwin in the second position to be behind top-ranked Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hasan. Jadeja took four wickets and scored 63 runs in Dharamsala to walk away with the player of the series award.
Australia captain Steve Smith has successfully defended his number-one position and is currently 61 points ahead of his New Zealand opposite number, Kane Williamson, who has moved up two places to second following his 176 in the Hamilton Test. Smith had entered the series against India, leading Kohli by 38 points, and finished as the most successful batsman with 499 runs in eight innings.
ICC Test Rankings: KL Rahul jumps to 11th place; Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin top two bowlers
