ICC Test Rankings: Joe Root Overtakes Labuschagne To Reclaim Top Spot, Kohli Slips To No. 10

ICC Test Ranking: Root's recent performance has been superb, he has scored 2 centuries in 2 matches so far in the ongoing Test series against England. 

England's Joe Root celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) on day 3 of the second Test cricket match between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge (Source: AFP)

New Delhi: According to the latest ICC Men's Test Player Rankings, the England cricket team's legendary batsman Joe Root has become the number-1 batsman after smashing a second successive century in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship series against New Zealand on Wednesday. He has made it to this position by pushing Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne down. Root's recent performance has been superb, he has scored 2 centuries in 2 matches so far in the ongoing Test series against England. 

Joe Root is the new No.1 Test batter 🔥

The England stalwart scales the @MRFWorldwide ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings summit 🤩

Details ⬇️

— ICC (@ICC) June 15, 2022

According to the ICC Test Ranking of Batsmen, Root has become entitled to the number-1 position with 897 points, five points more than Labuschagne in second place. England right-hander has scored 10 centuries in the Test format since January 2021, as well as 4 centuries in a calendar year.

The Englishman had recently scored a century in the Lord's Test against New Zealand and then played an innings of 176 runs in Nottingham. 

With this, if we talk about the rest of the batsmen in the Test Rankings, former captain of the Australian national team Steve Smith has now slipped to third place with 845 rating points, while Pakistan's captain Babar Azam is at number four with 815 ratings. It is followed by New Zealand's right-handed batsman Kane Williamson, Dimuth Karunaratne of Sri Lanka and Usman Khawaja of Australia at 5th, 6th and 7th place respectively.

After this, Team India's current captain Rohit Sharma is currently at number 8 with 754 rating points in the latest ICC rankings. Former captain Virat Kohli is on the verge of being out of the top 10. In fact, if we look at the ICC Test Ranking, Virat Kohli is at number 10 with 742 points.