Year in review: Virat Kohli closes gap on Steve Smith in ICC Test Rankings with his last Test match of 2020

Dubai, December 20: After the recently concluded Pink Ball Test match between Australia and India in Adelaide, India captain Virat Kohli managed to fractionally close the gap on Steve Smith at the top of the ICC Men's Test Player Rankings from 25 points to 13 points. This is the only positive for the Indian dasher who had a relatively forgettable year with the bat.

The 31-year-old batting maestro failed to score even a single century in the year in the last 12 years. Kohli has managed scores of 2, 19, 3, 14, 74 and 4 in his last six innings of 3 Test matches in 2020 against New Zealand and Australia respectively.

Despite India's capitulation in the series opener Down Under, the Delhi cricketer gained two points for his first innings of 74 against a quality Australian bowling attack, whereas Smith's 1 & 1* lost him 10 points in the table.

Marnus Labuschagne's innings of 47 & 6 in the low-scoring match have pushed him to a career-best 839 points. Whereas, Captain Tim Paine's player-of-the-match innings of 73 not out has lifted him with a career-best of 33rd place with 592 points. His previous best was 45th in December of 2018. Further down, Joe Burns unbeaten 51 saw him move into 48th place, the first time he has been in the top 50 since 2016.

With the ball, Aussie pacer Pat Cummins took seven wickets in the Day-Night Test - which concluded in two and a half days - to gain six points and move from 904 to 910, which is a comfortable lead over Stuart Broad in second place.

Cummins pace bowling partner, Josh Hazelwood's astonishing figures of 5/8 in India's second innings helped him gain four spots and move back into the top five with 805 points, the first time since March 2018. With four wickets in Australia's first innings, India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has overtaken Jasprit Bumrah as India's top-ranked bowler, currently in the ninth place.

India lost the match by 8 wickets after the Indian batting-order witnessed a shocking collapse in the second innings.