Dubai: India skipper Virat Kohli has maintained his top spot in the latest ICC Test Rankings for batsmen issued on Tuesday. Kohli, who had in the first week of December reclaimed the top spot from Steve Smith, is currently at 928 rating points and is 17 points ahead of the Australian.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is at the third spot. Cheteshwar Pujara is at the fourth spot, followed by Australia's Marnus Labuschagne. Labuschagne, who narrowly missed joining Pakistan's Zaheer Abbas and Mudassar Nazar in scoring at least 150 in three successive Test innings, had gained three slots to occupy fifth place in the last rankings' update.
Pakistan's Babar Azam, who scored a hundred in the second Test in Karachi against Sri Lanka, has made a jump of three spots to achieve his career-best ranking of 6, replacing Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane.
Rahane is followed by David Warner, Joe Root and Ross Taylor. The other two Indian batsmen featuring in the top 20 are Mayank Agarwal (12) and Rohit Sharma (15).
In the ICC World Test Championship, India is firmly placed at the top with 360 points from three series - against the West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh, who are all yet to get any points.
Australia is in the second position with 216 points after winning the opening match of their ongoing three-Test series against New Zealand.
Pakistan has grabbed 60 points for their victory over Sri Lanka in the Karachi Test to move to 80 points in the points table at the end of the two-match series.
Sri Lanka is also on 80 points, having reached the tally after the two teams drew the opening Test in Rawalpindi, which gained them 20 points each.
(IANS)