India have retained the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings, as per the annual update by the International Cricket Council (ICC), released on Thursday, 13 May. They are closely followed by New Zealand. England and Australia occupy the next two spots.
Virat Kohli’s men have gained one point for an aggregate score of 121 to maintain a marginal lead over the Kane Williamson’s team. New Zealand gained two rating points to reach 120 after the results from 2017-18 were struck off.
Fittingly, both teams are set to square off in the summit clash of the World Test Championship later this year. However, before that, New Zealand will play England in a two-Test series in England, starting 2 June.
India’s impressive away series victory against Australia in 2020-21, followed by a 3-1 thrashing of England at home, helped them stay ahead of the pack. Meanwhile, New Zealand had beaten West Indies and Pakistan in their last two series.
England leapfrogged arch rival Australia to climb to the third spot. England’s surge in the ranking came after their 0-4 Ashes defeat in the 2017-18 season was removed from the list.
Pakistan retained the fifth place, while West Indies jumped two spots to the sixth, their best ever position since 2013. West Indies completed the 2-0 series whitewash over Bangladesh and then drew 0-0 against Sri Lanka earlier this year.
South Africa dropped to seventh place, followed by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in that order.
Meanwhile, Williamson leads the chart for ICC Test rankings for the batters, released earlier this month. Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne sit at Nos. 3 and 4 respectively. Kohli is at 5, followed by compatriots Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma, both at joint-sixth.
As far as the rankings for bowlers are concerned, Australia’s pacer Pat Cummins is at the top, followed by R Ashwin.