India captain Virat Kohli and South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada have maintained their top positions in the ICC Test rankings at the end of 2018.
Kohli dropped three points despite a first innings score of 82 in the third Test in Melbourne, but still enjoys a 34-point lead over second-placed Kane Williamson.
Kohli, who attained a career-high 937 points during the year, which is the highest ever by an Indian batsman, scored a staggering 1322 runs during the year. Kohli overtook former Australia captain Steve Smith in August and has now held the top position for 135 days.
Rabada, who split the top ranking with England’s seasoned fast bowler James Anderson during the year, is just six points ahead of the latter. Rabada, who became the youngest to take top position among bowlers during the year held the spot for 178 days during the year. He grabbed six wickets in the opening match at Centurion against Pakistan that South Africa won by six wickets to finish with 52 wickets in 10 Tests.
India’s Test mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara has maintained fourth position after a first-innings century in Melbourne. Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has gained 10 slots to reach a career-best 38th position while rookie opener Mayank Agarwal has entered the batsmen’s list at an impressive 67th place. The Karnataka batsman registered impressive scores of 76 and 42 to setup his side’s 137-run win at Melbourne.
Jasprit Bumrah has moved from 28th to 12th spot after his match haul of nine for 86, the best-ever by an Indian pacer in Australia. He is now the highest-ranked India fast bowler in Tests with Mohammed Shami next in 23rd position.
For Australia, Pat Cummins has been the pick, gaining five slots to reach a career-best third position after finishing with nine wickets at MCG. He has also gained 13 slots to reach 91st place among batsmen after scoring a fighting half-century in the second innings.
New Zealand fast bowlers have a lot to cheer about following their record 423-run win over Sri Lanka in Christchurch. Trent Boult’s nine wickets in the match have helped him gain seven slots to reach the seventh spot while Tim Southee (up two places to ninth) and Neil Wagner (up one place to 15th) have also made forward strides.
Century-makers at Christchurch, Henry Nicholls (up two places to seventh) and Tom Latham (up eight places to 14th), and Jeet Raval (up two places to 35th) have also gained in the latest rankings update.
Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis, the only player apart from Kohli to score 1,000 runs in the year has moved up by a couple of spots and ends the year in the 16th position.
For South Africa, former captain Hashim Amla (up three places to 11th place) and Temba Bavuma (up four places to 31st) made big gains while pacer Duanne Olivier has gained 17 places to reach 36th position following his 11-wicket match haul at Centurion.
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas, who had a sensational year during which he took 38 Test wickets at an average of 13.76 finished the year at fifth place.
Meanwhile, New Zealand have leapfrogged South Africa to take third place in the team rankings.