The International Cricket Council (ICC) updated the rankings on Tuesday, January 9 which saw Indian superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma make big gains as far as the batters were concerned while pace duos of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj and Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood for Australia made a huge jump as well. Since both India and Australia won their respective Test matches in Cape Town and Sydney, their players got the big jumps while Pakistan superstar Babar Azam dropped on the batters list.
Kohli, who was the leading run-getter for India in the two Test matches on tough pitches in Centurion and Cape Town, jumped three places to No.6 position while Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, who gave positive starts rose four places to No.10 position. Rohit's resurgence meant the likes of Travis Head and Saud Shakeel, who had below-par performances with the bat in three-match Test series, dropped out of Top 10.
Babar Azam, who had a highest score of 41 in the whole series, also dropped a couple of places to No. 8. Among other batters who rose were Australia's Marnus Labuschagne, who with a couple of good knocks moved up three places to No. 4 while Pakistan wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan with a half-century in Sydney moved to joint 16th place after rising by 10 places.
Among bowlers, Indian speedster Mohammed Siraj who registered his career-best figures of 6/15 in the first innings against South Africa in the second Test climbed up by 13 places to the 17th spot while Jasprit Bumrah, who had 12 wickets to his name in his return-to-Tests series, moved up by one place to No. 4.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins displaces South African Kagiso Rabada from his No.2 spot with three five-wicket hauls in a row, two in the Boxing Day Test and then in the first innings at the SCG. Josh Hazlewood, was another big jumper as far as the bowlers were concerned, who ran riot in the second innings as he flew off to joint-seventh position alongside James Anderson after a rise of four spots.
There were no changes in the top spots with Kane Williamson at No.1 in the batting list and India's R Ashwin in the bowling.
