Former India captain Virat Kohli has returned to the top 10 of the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings while South Africa opener Dean Elgar has made a huge jump after his Player of the Match effort in the first Test of the two-match ICC World Test Championship series in Centurion, which the home side won by an innings and 32 runs to take a 1-0 lead.
Kohli, a formerly top-ranked batter who dropped out of the top 10 in mid-2022, has advanced four slots to ninth position after scores of 38 and 76 but is 103 ratings points adrift of top-ranked Kane Williamson of New Zealand (864 points). Joe Root is a close second in the list at 859 while Steve Smith is third with 820 rating points.
Left-hander Elgar’s knock of 185 has lifted him 19 places to 17th position as he leads the team in the second Test in Cape Town, which will be his last international match as he has announced his retirement after the series.
Others to gain after their performances in the first Test are first innings centurion KL Rahul (up 11 places to 51st) of India and Marco Jansen of South Africa, who has advanced in all three lists. Jansen, who scored 84 not out and finished with four wickets in the match, has progressed 13 places to 72nd among batters, is up three places to 22nd among bowlers and jumped from 13th to fifth in the list of all-rounders.
In the latest weekly update that also considers performances in the second Test between Australia and Pakistan, Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne has inched up one slot to seventh after notching a half-century in the first innings while Alex Carey (up four places to 41st) and Mitchel Marsh (up 16 places to 52nd) have also gained.
Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel (up one place to 13th), Abdullah Shafique (up three places to 21st) and Mohammed Rizwan (up four places to 27th) are the Pakistan batters to advance after the Melbourne Test, which Australia won by 79 runs to go 2-0 up in the three-Test series.
