Dubai: India captain Virat Kohli will look to snatch the coveted No.1 position from Australia’s Steve Smith in the ICC Test Player Rankings during the five-Test series which is beginning with the first Test in Birmingham Wednesday.
Kohli trails Smith, who is currently serving 12 months ban due to his role in ball tampering, by 26 points and will have to produce a string of strong performances to leapfrog the Australian.
Amongst the batsmen, both England and India have five each inside the top 50. India’s Cheteshwar Pujara is sixth, followed by KL Rahul 18th, Ajinkya Rahane 19th, Murali Vijay 23rd and Shikhar Dhawan 24th, while England’s Joe Root is ranked third (48 points behind Kohli), Alastair Cook 13th, Jonny Bairstow 16th, Ben Stokes 28th and Moeen Ali 43rd.
Among the bowlers, England fast bowler James Anderson will aim to defend his No.1 ranking. Apart from Anderson, Stuart Broad is the second highest-ranked English bowler in the 12th position.
In contrast, India boasts three bowlers inside the top 20, including two spinners in Ravindra Jadeja (third) and Ravichandran Ashwin (fifth), and pacer Mohammed Shami (17th).
In Test team rankings, India are placed atop while England are placed in the fifth place.