Steve Smith pulls away from Virat Kohli in Test ranking

The ICC's latest ranking after the fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England has Steve Smith putting more distance between him and Virat Kohli at the top with 937 points. Kohli has a rating of 903.

Return of the King

Steve Smith has returned from exile after a year's gap as he was banned by Cricket Australia for his part in the ball-tampering scandal during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town.

'Sandpapergate', as it's known, broke after Cameron Bancroft was caught by cameras trying to roughen up one side of the ball with sandpaper. Australian coach Darren Lehmann, announced he would step down following the scandal, while Smith was replaced by Tim Paine as Test captain and Aaron Finch as T20I and ODI captain.

In the last Test series against South Africa in 2018, Steve Smith scored a career-low 142 runs at an average of 23.66 in six innings. After making a comeback to international cricket, he had scored just 294 runs in 9 innings in the group stages of the 2019 World Cup at an average of 32.67 – this includes three single-digit scores and two between 10-20.

But his batting in the Ashes series against world champions England has shattered expectations. In the last five innings of three Test matches, the former Australian skipper has scored 671 runs at a thumping average of 134.