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India opener Rohit Sharma has advanced six places to achieve a career-best eighth position in the latest Men’s Test Player Rankings released by International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday (February 28).
Rohit earned 742 rating points after his splendid performance in the low-scoring third Test against England at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad. The home team had won the contest by 10 wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.
Rohit top-scored in the first innings with 66 and remained unbeaten on 25 in the second essay. The previous best of Rohit was 722 points he achieved in October 2019 when he was ranked 10th in the rankings.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson is still at the top, followed by Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root and Virat Kohli. Indian middle-order specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has dropped down to the 10th position.
Senior Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has broken into top-3 after he finished the third Test against England with seven wickets to his credit. Axar Patel, who bagged 11 scalps in the game, has gained 30 places to reach the 38th spot.
Veteran England swing bowler James Anderson fell three slots to occupy the sixth position while his countryman Stuart Broad has reached the seventh spot.
Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah has also lost one place to reach the ninth position in the table headed by Australian pace sensation Pat Cummins.
🔸 Ashwin breaks into top three
🔸 Anderson slips to No.6
🔸 Broad, Bumrah move down one spotThe latest @MRFWorldwide ICC Test Player Rankings for bowling: https://t.co/AIR0KNm9PD pic.twitter.com/FssvpYiLcx
— ICC (@ICC) February 28, 2021
ICC changes rankings system
The ICC has also decided to do some modifications to the ranking system. Now, the process will move to a weekly updating system from March 2021. The change basically means that instead of updating the rankings at the end of any series (ODIs and T20Is) or a Test match, it will be updated while a series or game is ongoing. But the performances in those matches will not be considered.
The men’s player rankings will be updated at 12h00 Dubai time (08h00 GMT) each Wednesday. At the same time, the women’s player rankings will be updated at 12h00 Dubai time (08h00 GMT) each Tuesday.
The first update under the newly launched weekly system will be on Tuesday (March 2) for women and Wednesday (March 3) for men.
