IND vs BAN: Before India begins their hectic test schedule against Bangladesh on the 19th of September, there have been some major changes in the ICC Test rankings.
India’s Test summer will initiate against Bangladesh in their 2-match home test series, with action to begin at Chennai. After the Chepauk test, the action will move to Kanpur’s iconic stadium, Green Park. India will then host the Blackcaps for another home series of 3 matches, and this is vital from the team’s point of view to qualify for the WTC finals.
Though India has been a stunning Test side, and since they have won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy multiple times in the last few years, all of them came under subcontinent conditions. Now that the series is held in Australia, India would not enjoy the immense monopoly they do under home conditions.
With 10 matches remaining in the World Test Championship for India, they would eye 5 wins in the home tests, as that would place them comfortably in the WTC points table to make their third consecutive selection into the WTC final.
However, before all, Indian players have seen their latest rise in Test rankings. Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are the biggest contributors as far as runs are considered. They are the highest runners-up for India in this WTC.
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Sharma is placed as India’s best-ranked test batter, though he is closely followed by players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and veteran batter Virat Kohli. It was due to Harry Brook’s major drop from Test rankings after his disappointing show in the Sri Lanka series that he was dropped 7 spots from the 5th spot to the 12th spot, which also helped Babar Azam rise a spot to the 11th position.
Marnus Labuschagne and Mohammad Rizwan have returned to the top 10 rankings in the ICC’s Test rankings, while Usman Khawaja is now placed in the 8th spot.
Rohit Sharma has now emerged as India’s best-ranked test batter, aged 37; he is also India’s best-ranked ODI batter, with a No. 2 ranking only behind Babar Azam. Young and dynamic batter Yashasvi Jaiswal is next placed at No. 6 with 740 points, and Kohli has placed him at No. 7.
