ICC Rankings: Virat Kohli reaches top spot

Bengaluru, August 5: India skipper Virat Kohli achieved a personal milestone by becoming the seventh India batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011, to top the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, which were released on Sunday (August 5) following the conclusion of the Edgbaston Test.

Kohli scored 149 and 51 in India's 31-run defeat and has gone up by 31 points, which have helped him to end Steve Smith's 32-month reign as the top-ranked batsman and reach the top of the summit for the first time in his 67-Test career.

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Kohli now leads Smith (who had held the top spot since December 2015) by five points, but will have to maintain the form in the remaining four Tests to finish the series as the world's highest-ranked batsman.

Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmen to have achieved number-one rankings during their careers.

.@imVkohli has become the seventh Indian to become the No.1 batsman in the @MRFWorldwide Test rankings. @ENGvIND https://t.co/YntVya66nV via @icc

— ICC Media (@ICCMediaComms) August 5, 2018

However, at 934 points, Kohli has become India's highest-ranked batsman, 14th overall, on the all-time tally of points. Kohli had entered the Edgbaston Test on 903 points, 13 points behind Gavaskar, and is now ahead of him by 18 points.

If Kohli can deliver another strong performance in the second Test at Lord's, he can break into the top-10 by leapfrogging Matthew Hayden, Kallis and AB de Villiers, whose highest points tally was 935 each. Donald Bradman (961) and Steve Smith (947) are the two batsmen sitting on top of this list.

The batsmen to lose ground after the Edgbaston Test include Alistair Cook 17th (down by four places), KL Rahul 19th (down by one place), Ajinkya Rahane 22nd (down by three places), Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dawan, who now share 25th position after slipping two and one spots, respectively, and Ben Stokes 33rd (down by five places).

In the bowlers' table, Stuart Broad and Mohammed Shami are the two bowlers inside the top-20 who have headed in the opposite direction, while James Anderson has retained his top position but his lead over Kagiso Rabada has been reduced to two points.

Broad is now ranked 13th after falling one place, while Shami is in 19th spot after sliding two places.

India off-spinner R Ashwin has gained 14 points following his four for 62 and three for 59, which means he now trails South Africa's fourth-ranked Vernon Philander by just one point, while Ishant Sharma has collected 19 points to move within 13 points of 25th-ranked teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar.