Rishabh Pant makes his way back in the top 10 test batters after the latest round of Test rankings for batsmen.
Rishabh Pant made his long-awaited Test return vs Bangladesh last week, and it felt like he never left. The chirpiness. The banter behind the stumps. His batting in the longest format was the same as it was before his accident.
And that is a crucial factor as he makes his way back into the top 10 of the ICC rankings for batsmen in Test Cricket.
Pant makes a jump to number 6 in the rankings after scoring 39 and 109 in the Chennai Test vs Bangladesh. Fellow batsmen Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal were also big gainers in the rankings. Jaiswal moved one spot up to 5th, while Gill moves 5 spots up to 14th.
While there were gainers for India, there were losers as well. Rohit Sharma, who was quite consistently in the top-5, has gone down all the way to 10th following his lean scores of 6 and 5 in the test. He finds himself just 4 rating points ahead of Babar Azam, who is outside the top 10 at number 11.
Virat Kohli is another batter who lost his place in the Top 10. His scores of 6 and 17 meant that he drops 5 places to number 12. He is currently below Babar while staying above Gill.
This latest increment for Pant bodes well for his and India’s fortunes as a whole. With Pant seemingly back to his flamboyant self with the bat, it presents the Men in Blue with a bonafide game-changer for the Australia series in November.
Englishman Joe Root continues to rule the roost in Test Cricket, retaining his place as the top-ranking batter in Tests.
Pant, Gill, Jaiswal, Rohit, and Kohli will all look to better or improve their showing with the bat. The second test against Bangladesh begins tomorrow onwards at Kanpur.