Pant surges to career-best number five, Kohli drops out of top-10 in ICC Test ranking

Pant's meteoric rise in the rankings comes after his heroics in the recently-held COVID-delayed fifth Test between India and England in which he scored 146 and 57 across two innings.

Dubai: India's star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant blazed his way into a career-best fifth position in the latest ICC Test rankings announced on Wednesday, even as the out-of-form Virat Kohli dropped out of top-10 for the first time in six years. Pant's meteoric rise in the rankings comes after his heroics in the recently-held COVID-delayed fifth Test between India and England in which he scored 146 and 57 across two innings.

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It is worth mentioning that Pant scored two tons and three half centuries in his last six Test innings. However, former India skipper Kohli dropped four places to 13th in the batting rankings, thanks to a prolonged lean run. Interestingly, it is for the first time in six years that Kohli has found himself out of top 10 in the Test rankings.

Current Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who missed the Edgbaston Test after testing positive for COVID-19, also dropped one place in the rankings. England batter Joe Root, who reigned supreme at Edbagston with a sublime 142 in England's second innings, consolidated his position at the top of the rankings with 923 points, with Australians Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith taking the second and third positions respectively.

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Jonny Bairstow, who is in the form of his life and played a pivotal role in guiding England to a historic victory with his unbeaten 114, climbed 11 places to 10th in the rankings. Bairstow has so far scored 1218 runs at an average of 55.36 with six centuries in the current ICC World Test Championship cycle.

PTI