Banned Smith retakes top spot in ICC rankings

DUBAI: Banned Australian batsman Steve Smith reclaimed top spot in the ICC Test batting rankings from India’s Virat Kohli on Monday, despite not having played since March.
The 29-year-old was suspended for a year and stripped of the captaincy by Cricket Australia following his part in the infamous ball-tampering scandal against South Africa, but his ranking points have not changed.
India skipper Kohli had taken the number one place after scoring 200 runs in his team’s first-Test defeat by England, but slipped back after managing only 40 in the second match of the series at Lord’s last week.
Smith is currently playing T20 cricket in the Caribbean Premier League as he prepares for a possible return to the international game next year.
England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson remains top of the bowlers’ rankings after taking nine wickets in their crushing innings victory in London.
The low scores and one-sided defeat have led to a fall in rankings for most India players with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin being the notable exception.
He has moved up in the list for batsmen from 67th to 57th, with defiant innings of 29 and 33 not out.
Ashwin has also leap-frogged South Africa’s Vernon Philander to grab the third position among all-rounders.
On the other hand, all-rounder Hardik Pandya has moved up 25 places to take the 74th spot among bowlers.
England paceman James Anderson has become only the seventh England bowler and the first in 38 years from his country to breach the 900-point mark in the rankings for after an excellent performance in the second Test against India, the ICC said in a statement. (PTI)