Indian skipper Virat Kohli is on the verge of losing top spot in the ICC Test batting rankings.
His side may hold a crucial early lead in their Test series against Australia, after an excellent win in the first Test in Adelaide, but Kohli could only manage three in the first innings and 34 in the second.
The low scoring Test by Kohli’s lofty standards sees his lead in the ICC Test batting rankings reduced to seven, after they were released on Tuesday.
The master batsmen has held the lead since the Test against England in Edgbaston earlier this year, but is now in danger of conceding top spot to New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, according to cricket.com.au.
Williamson dominated in his most recent Test against Pakistan, with scores of 89 and 139 in Abu Dhabi, to lead the Kiwis to a drought breaking series victory in Asia.
New Zealand had not won a Test series against an Asian nation in almost 50 years.
Arguably already the Kiwis’ best ever batsmen, Williamson averages 63.75 from five matches with two hundreds this year compared to Kohli’s average of 55 from 11 matches with four hundreds in 2018.
Williamson moved passed sidelined former Australian skipper Steve Smith into second and in doing so became the first New Zealand batsmen to crack the 900-point barrier.
If Kohli fails twice in the Perth Test match against Australia, which starts on Friday, Williamson could supersede him as statistically the best batsmen in the game.
Kohli’s countryman Cheteshwar Pujara climbed two spots and into fourth after his excellent knocks of 123 and 71 in Adelaide.
England skipper Joe Root rounds out the top five, with another suspended Australian David Warner dropping to sixth.
In the bowling department Ravi Ashwin, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc all moved places following the first Test.
Ashwin moved up to sixth and bumped Cummins down to seventh, after his six wicket haul against Australia, while Starc’s five wickets saw him rise two places to 16th.
ICC Test Batting Rankings
1 Virat Kohli IND 920
2 Kane Williamson NZ 913
3 Steve Smith AUS 901
4 Cheteshwar Pujara IND 846
5 Joe Root ENG 807
ICC Test Bowling Rankings
1 Kagiso Rabada SA 882
2 James Anderson ENG 874
3 Vernon Philander SA 826
4 Mohammad Abbas PAK 821
5 Ravindra Jadeja IND 804
Australia v India Test series (India lead 1-0)
Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium
Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG
Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG
Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain
India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
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