Marnus Labuschagne and de Kock move up the rankings

Kohli and Cummins finish at the top of the year-end Test rankings

Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne has finished the year at a career-best fourth position while South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock has moved into the top 10 of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings in the latest update carried out on Monday.

Labuschagne, who was ranked 110th at the start of the year, has moved up one slot after scores of 63 and 19 in the Melbourne Test against New Zealand, which Australia won by 247 runs to go 2-0 up in the three-match series. De Kock’s ‘player of the match’ effort of 95 and 34, which helped his team beat England by 107 runs at Centurion to go 1-0 up in the four-match series, sees him advance eight places and reach 10th position.

The batting list continues to be led by India captain Virat Kohli, who was at the top for 274 days in 2019. Australia’s Steve Smith finished in second place after having occupied the top position for 91 days during the year.

Other batsmen to move up the rankings include New Zealand opener Tom Latham (up two places to 14th), Australia middle-order batsman Travis Head (up 15 places to a career-best 19th), England opener Rory Burns (up five places to a career-best 31st) and middle-order batsman Joe Denly (up 10 places to a career-best 36th).

Jason Holder finished as the top all-rounder, occupying number one position for 342 days. Shakib Al Hasan was at the top for 23 days.

In the ICC World Test Championship, Australia have strengthened their position in second place in the points table after gaining 40 points for the Test win. They are on 256 points and could go up to 296 by the end of the series. South Africa have 30 points after their first win in the WTC while New Zealand and England remain on 60 and 56 points, respectively.

Each series of the WTC is worth 120 points, distributed evenly over the number of matches in a series. The points range from 60 points for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series. The top two teams at the end of the league will play the final in the UK in June 2021 with the winners crowned the World Test Champions.

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins has finished at the top of the bowlers’ list with a five-wicket haul in the first innings in Melbourne. He occupied the top place for 321 during the year while South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada was No. 1 for 44 days after starting 2019 in top position.

Vernon Philander has moved up three places to fifth position while the England trio of Stuart Broad (up two places to 14th), Joffra Archer (up three places to 40th) and Sam Curran (up five places to 45th) have also made notable progress. James Pattinson has moved up 46 places to 54th position after taking three wickets in each innings.