- Thursday, March 13, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
ACE India batter Virat Kohli, who was once counted among the Greatest of All Time (GOAT), found himself dropping out of the top 10 batters in Test cricket in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings for the long format announced on Wednesday (6).
Wicket-keeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who hit a hundred and fifty in the just concluded fifth Test match against England at Edgbaston, was placed at No.5.
Kohli, who has not hit a hundred in international cricket for more than two years now, managed to score only 11 and 20 in the two innings at Edgbaston and was more in the headlines for his heated exchanges with England batter Jonny Bairstow who slammed hundreds in both the innings to steal the game from India. Kohli’s bad run with the bat also saw his average in the long format dropping below 50.
Pant, on the other hand, scored 146 runs in just 111 balls in the first innings when India were cornered and followed it up with a 57 in the second.
The diminutive wicket-keeper-batter’s recent Test form with the bat, which includes two tons and three fifties, saw him earning the best batting ranking in the long format, moving up six places to No.5.
England batter Joe Root, who hit an unbeaten hundred in the second innings at Edgbaston, continued to top the rankings. The batter, who hit more than 700 runs in the five-match series, also attained his highest rating points of 923.
It also puts the former England captain in the elite list of top 20 highest-rated batters in the history of ICC rankings.
Bairstow, who has now hit six hundreds in his last eight tests, climbed up 11 places to tenth in the Test batting rankings.
The 32-year-old now has 1,218 runs at an average of 55.36 with six centuries in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle.
