ICC Rankings: Rohit Sharma reaches career-best eighth; R Ashwin, Axar Patel also move up

Rohit Sharma. Pic/AFP; Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel. Pics/PTI

Opener Rohit Sharma touched his career-best eighth position in the ICC Test Batsmen's Rankings on Sunday with a six-place jump after his impressive show in India's 10-wicket win over England in the low-scoring third Test in Ahmedabad. Rohit top-scored in the first innings with 66 and remained unbeaten on 25 in the second to move ahead of compatriot Cheteshwar Pujara among others. His rating points aggregate is 742, 20 more than his best of 722 in October 2019 when he was ranked 10th.

Player of the match Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin have also made solid gains after playing a crucial rile in India's win on a spin-friendly track. Left-arm spinner Patel's 11-wicket match haul has helped him gain 30 slots to reach 38th position while off-spinner Ashwin's seven wickets have lifted him four places to third position. England spinner Jack Leach has entered the top 30 for the first time, moving up three places to 28th after taking four wickets. Captain Joe Root's maiden five-wicket haul has lifted him 16 places to 72nd among bowlers while he is now joint-13th among all-rounders. Opener Zak Crawley's knock of 53 in the first innings has helped him advance 15 places to 46th in what was the only notable gain for any of their batsmen.

Meanwhile, the ICC said that player rankings will move to a weekly updating system from March 2021 for both men and women. "The change will not impact the way the rankings are calculated but what it means is that instead of rankings being updated at the end of a series (in ODIs and T20Is) or a Test match, they may be updated while a series or match is ongoing without performances in those matches being considered," ICC said in a release.

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