ICC Rankings: Kohli and Anderson retain top spot

Cook signs off with a top-ten spot

In what turned out to be a fitting finale for England’s talisman, Alastair Cook finished his 161-Test career as the tenth-ranked ICC Test batsman- rising 11 spots in the latest MRF Tyres ICC Test Player rankings for batsmen.

Coming into the Test match on the back of a poor run-of-form in the first four games, Cook compiled a total of 218 runs including a hundred in his last Test innings in England’s 118-run win over India.

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Kohli retains the No.4 spot; Root moves to the fourth spot

His final innings may have ended with a golden duck, but there’s no doubt that Virat Kohli comprehensively buried the demons of that horrendous 2014 tour that saw him scrap to 134 runs across ten innings. Kohli emerged as the leading run-scorer of the series with 593 runs- 244 ahead of the next placed Jos Buttler (349) and consequently retained the top spot in ICC Test rankings for batsmen.

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Kohli’s counterpart Joe Root endured a lacklustre series by his standards but finally managed to get it right in the last innings of the series. Root scored a sublime 125 to notch up his 14th Test ton- his first since Edgbaston, 2016, to move to the No.4 spot.

KL Rahul, who scored a sublime 149 in the fourth innings gained 16 spots to move to No.19 while Rishab Pant, courtesy his maiden hundred achieved a career-high 285 rating points.

Anderson retains his spot as the premium fast bowler

There was no displacing Jamie Anderson from the zenith of the IC Test rankings for bowlers as the fast bowler coursey his five wickets in the game helped him stay afloat at No.1.

The last of the five wickets that Anderson took will forever be etched in the history of English cricket as Anderson went on to surpass Glenn McGrath (563 wickets) to become the most successful fast bowler in the history of Test cricket.

The 36-year-old is now fourth in the all-time leading wicket-takers in the history of the game trailing behind Anil Kumble (619), Shane Warne (708) and Muttiah Muralitharan, who sits at the top of the pile with 800 Test scalps.