Rishabh Pant has attained new highs for an India wicketkeeper in the ICC Test Rankings after his superb century in the drawn final Test in Sydney against Australia.
The 21-year-old gained 21 slots to reach 17th place, the joint-highest by a specialist India wicketkeeper, along with Farokh Engineer, who did so in January 1973. MS Dhoni’s highest Test ranking was 19th.
Pant’s aggregate of 673 rating points are the highest by an India wicketkeeper, surpassing Dhoni’s 662 and Engineer’s 619.
Pant has moved into the top-20 after only his ninth Test match, with an unbeaten 159 in Sydney. The keeper-batsman had started the Australia tour in 59th place and made rapid progress, scoring 350 runs in a series that also saw him take 20 catches.
Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 521 runs to help India beat Australia 2-1 and claim the Player of the Series award, is another batsman to gain in the latest rankings update.
Pujara gained one slot to reach third position, while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (up six places to 57th) and rookie opener Mayank Agarwal (up five places to 62nd) are the others from his team to advance at the end of a historic series win.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav gained seven slots to reach a career-best 45th position after his figures of 5/99 in Australia’s first innings, even as Jasprit Bumrah held on to 16th position and Mohammed Shami gained one place to take the 22nd slot.
Jadeja gained one place to reach fifth among bowlers and also leapfrogged Windies captain Jason Holder into second place among all-rounders.
For Australia, opener Marcus Harris advanced 21 places to take a career-best 69th position after a fine 79 in the first innings, while off-spinner Nathan Lyon inched up from 14th to 13th position.
There was no change in position or points for India in the ICC Test Team Rankings, while Australia lost one point but remained in fifth position.