ICC Test Rankings: Mayank Agarwal breaks into Top 10, Virat Kohli inches closer to the top spot

What's the story?

Indian captain Virat Kohli has reduced the gap between himself and the No.1 batsman Steve Smith in the latest ICC Test rankings. On the other side, Indian opener Mayank Agarwal has broken into the Top 10 of the rankings.

The background

The Test season is in full swing at the moment, as six of the top nine Test teams battled against each other last week. Australia and New Zealand kicked off their respective home Test seasons with matches against Pakistan and England respectively. India made their day/night Test debut versus Bangladesh in Kolkata. The International Cricket Council (ICC) have released the latest rankings which contain the updates from all the three matches.

The heart of the matter

There are no changes in the Top 6 of the batsmen's rankings, but Virat Kohli's hundred against Bangladesh has helped him narrow the gap between himself and Steve Smith to 3 points. Also, Smith could score only 4 runs for Australia in their innings win against Pakistan. Thus, he could lose his No.1 spot soon.

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Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane hit a fifty each in the pink-ball Test, and as a result, they stay at fourth and fifth positions respectively. Mayank Agarwal scored 14 runs against Bangladesh, but his past performances have earned him a promotion in the rankings. He has swapped the 10th and 11th places with his opening partner, Rohit Sharma.

Among the Indian bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah has lost one spot to slip to the fifth rank whereas Ravichandran Ashwin has attained the same number of points as Josh Hazlewood as both the bowlers share the ninth position in the rankings. However, Ashwin has fallen to the fifth position in the all-rounders chart, after gaining the fourth spot just last week.

What's next?

India will play their next Test match against New Zealand in 2020, but Australia will continue their series against Pakistan while England and New Zealand will lock horns with each other in the second Test soon.