Joe Root is the new No.1 Ranked Test Batter

Joe Root starts a nine stint at the top of Test batters’ rankings beckons with England batter displacing Kane Winnings to the summit of the rankings. Root rose to the top on the back of a match-winning 87 in the first innings of the Birmingham Test against the West Indies. He was the only one in the top six to score more than 20 runs, although the lower middle order did contribute with bat in hand with Jamie Smith almost scoring a ton. The hard-hitting wicketkeeper batter got a massive rise in the rankings going up by 31 places to No. 64. 

Root’s ascension to the top is the most notable of the latest developments and he reached probably a bigger landmark during the test itself when he surpassed Brian Lara’s test match tally of 11,953 to become the seventh-highest run-getter in test cricket. With 12,207 runs, Root is ahead of all active test cricketers including Steve Smith (9685) and Virat Kohli (8848). He reached the top of the test rankings for the first time in 2015 and was last there in June 2023, after a splendid performance in the Ashes series opener. 

England pace bowler Mark Wood’s Player of the Match performance (7/92) lifted him into the top 20 of the bowling rankings. 

In the men’s T20I rankings for batters, Yashasvi Jaiswal is back at No.4 after aggregating 80 runs in the three-match series against Sri Lanka which his team won by 3-0. 

Shubman Gill attained a career-best 21st position after moving up 16 places. Sri Lanka's opening pair of Pathum Nissanka (up 11 places to 15th) and Kusal Perera (up 40 places to joint-63rd) are among the big movers in the rankings. Ravi Bishnoi who has held the number 1 place in T20I bowler rankings in the past, is back in the top 10.