Icing on the Cake! Williamson becomes No. 1 ranked test batsman

Dubai:New Zealand captain Kane Williamson reclaimed the No 1 position in the latest ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings released on Wednesday after leading his side to the ICC World Test Championship title in Southampton last week.

The 30-year-old’s knocks of 49 and 52 not out in the low-scoring final against India helped him move above the 900-point mark and he now has a 10-point lead over Steve Smith (891 rating points).

Williamson, who conceded the top spot to Smith two weeks ago, is back in the position he had first grabbed in November 2015 during a series against Australia.

Ross Taylor, who scored an unbeaten 47 and partnered in an unbroken 96-run stand with Williamson, advanced three places to 14th position while left-hander Devon Conway gained 18 slots to reach 42nd place after top-scoring with 52 in the first innings.

New Zealand’s fast bowlers too gained after thriving in the seaming conditions, player of the match Kyle Jamieson continuing the stupendous start to his Test career.

His figures of five for 31 and two for 30 pushed him up to a career-best 13th position, not surprising since no bowler has taken more Test wickets at a better average than him since 1900.

Left-armer Trent Boult’s figures of two for 48 and three for 39 have lifted him two places to 11th position while for India, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane’s progress of three places to 13th position after scores of 49 and 15, was the only notable gain.

According to the ICC release, Ravindra Jadeja slipped behind West Indian Jason Holder to second position after a week at the top of the rankings for all-rounders.

In the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, West Indies’ left-handed opener Evin Lewis has moved from 13th to 10th position after a player of the match effort of 71 off 35 balls in the first of the two matches of their ongoing five-match series that counted for this week’s rankings.

Left-arm spinner Fabian Allen progressed 23 places to 20th position.

South Africa’s Quinton de Kock (up one place to 22nd), Reeza Hendricks (up three places to 24th) and Temba Bavuma (up 24 places to 64th) were among the others to move up.

England’s 3-0 series win over Sri Lanka, helped several of their players move up too.

Chris Jordan (up five places to 11th), Mark Wood (up 11 places to 14th), Sam Curran (up 62 places to 39th) and David Willey (up 23 places to 51st) progressed in the bowlers’ list.

Meanwhile, for Sri Lanka, Wanindu Hasaranga moved up five places to fifth and Dushmantha Chameera 41 places to 43rd.

The latest weekly update, which includes performances in the Sofia four-team tournament won by Romania, and which also featured Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, saw Romania’s Ramesh Satheesan enter the top 100. He has moved up 101 slots to 95th position after topping the series aggregate with 197 runs.(UNI)