Senior India batter Virat Kohli moved up two rungs to eighth place while his captain Rohit Sharma dropped a spot to sixth in the latest ICC Test rankings released on Wednesday. Joining Rohit and Kohli in the top 10 is young Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has moved up a spot to seventh. Veteran England batter Joe Root maintained his place as the top ranked Test batter in the world following their success in the opening Test against Sri Lanka in Manchester. But Root’s teammate Harry Brook has made a massive jump on the back of scores of 56 and 32 during that Old Trafford contest.

The 25-year-old has risen three places to fourth overall, leaping past Pakistan’s Babar Azam, Australia’s Steve Smith and Rohit.

Babar has dropped a whopping six places to fall from shared third to ninth following a rare failure in the first innings of Pakistan’s Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi.

But teammate Mohammad Rizwan gained seven spots, achieving a new career-high rating by moving inside the top 10 at a shared 10th following his century in the same match.

Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim has achieved a career-high rating as he climbed seven spots to move to 17th.

Seasoned India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continues to hold the top spot among bowlers while pacer Jasprit Bumrah and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja have maintained their third and seventh spots respectively.

England seamer Chris Woakes, who is up four rungs to 16th, and Sri Lanka’s Asitha Fernando (up 10 spots to 17th) have gained some ground while Pakistan’s right-arm pacer Naseem Shah (up four spots to 33rd) and England’s Gus Atkinson (up four places to 42nd) have attained career-best ratings following good returns from their recent appearances.

Among all-rounders, Jadeja and Ashwin continue to occupy the top two spots while Axar Patel is ranked sixth. 

India edged past South Africa in the final to clinch the 2024 T20 World Cup 2024 in Barbados last week. The Rohit Sharma-led side won the title after a gap of 17 years and it was indeed an emotional as well as unforgettable moment for the team. Among the several pictures of the players and the team management that went viral after India’s win, one will stay in the hearts of cricket fans for a long time. It is that of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma posing together with the Indian flag and the World Cup trophy.

While speaking in Star Sports, Kohli revealed how the iconic picture was taken.

“It was a very special thing for him [Rohit] as well. His family is here, Samaira [Rohit’s daughter] was on his shoulder. But I just felt like in the victory lap he was behind the whole time. I told him, you also hold the trophy for a while, for two minutes. We should take a picture together because this journey has been very long,” said Kohli.

Shortly after winning the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 as the Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma retired from T20Is. A few minutes before that, Virat Kohli also called it quits from the format after winning the Player of the Match Award for his 59-ball 76, with Ravindra Jadeja following their direction on Sunday.

Rohit signed off from the format as two-time World Cup-winner and the leading run-getter — amassing 4231 runs in 159 matches, including five hitting centuries, the most by a men’s T20I batter.

Meanwhile, Kohli ended his T20I career as India’s second-highest run-scorer in the format, through 4188 runs in 125 games at an average of 48.69 and strike rate of 137.04.

(With IANS Inputs)

Pakistani cricketer-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja has backed the duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan as the openers of the national team. Reacting to Shahid Afridi’s opinion of Fakhar Zaman opening for Pakistan instead of Babar in T20Is, Raja said that the Babar-Rizwan duo might not give a strike rate of Rohit Sharma–Virat Kohli but they provide “solidity” to the team. While Babar and Rizwan have provided solid starts to Pakistan, their strike rate has come under scanner, quite a lot.

“Looking at what Pakistan have got, you cannot afford to start by losing wickets. They (Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan) may not give you a strike rate of a Rohit (Sharma) or a Virat (Kohli), but, you know, at least they give you solidity. And this Pakistan team, with the kind of batting lineup that they’ve got, they’ve got to play within what they have got. So it’s important that they start off with Babar and Rizwan because it takes years to establish an opening partnership and pair,” Ramiz Raja told Cricbuzz.

With the opening combination of Babar and Rizwan, Pakistan made it to the final of T20 World Cup 2022, where they lost to England by 5 wickets.

“And there’s a reason why Pakistan made it to the final of the World Cup (in 2022). Against England about a year back, they won by 10 wickets chasing 200 (in September 2022). Why break something that is working? This phobia of strike rate must end because Pakistan do not have the luxury of such skills and talent,” Raja added.

In the ongoing T20 World Cup, Pakistan have been kncoked. The side needs Ireland to beat United States on June 14 to bow out the tournament with a win.

Pakistan crashed out of the tournament after USA’s game against Ireland was washed out. With five points in three matches, USA joined India in the Super 8 stage from Group A.