Ahead of the WTC final, India captain Virat Kohli moved up to the fourth spot in the ICC Test rankings, but lost his top spot to New Zealand's Kane Williamson.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson will have mixed feelings after the ICC released the latest Test rankings days before the final of the World Test Championship. Kohli got a spot after England captain Joe Root slipped to number five, while Williamson lost his top spot to Australia's Steve Smith.
Smith achieved the No. 1 ranking for batsmen for the first time since the Boxing Day Test last year.
He will replace New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who is set to lead his team in the WTC final against India at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton from Friday.
Meanwhile, Kohli moved up to the fourth spot with 814 points after Root slipped to fifth place due to a normal series against New Zealand.
Keeping Kohli company in the top 10 are flamboyant Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (747 points) and star opener Rohit Sharma (747 points), who have retained their joint sixth position.
Williamson, who missed the second Test against England at Edgbaston due to injury after scoring 13 runs in the drawn first Test at Lord's, has slipped five points behind Smith's 891 ratings points and is second in the batsmen's list. Huh.
This means that Smith has topped a total of 167 Test matches played across the world, behind only Gary Sobers (189 matches) and Viv Richards (179 matches).
Matt Henry's player-of-the-match performance (three wickets in each innings) took him to a career-best 307 points and 64th place, while Ejaz Patel is also on a career-high 323. Devon Conway continues his good run and is tied-61st.
He had his lowest home score against New Zealand in England's second innings, but Dan Lawrence's unbeaten 81 in his first innings lifted him 16 places to a career-best 396 points.
The latest men's weekly update, which also includes performances from the first Test between South Africa and West Indies in St Lucia, sees Quinton de Kock in joint-12th with Cheteshwar Pujara, while his compatriot Adrian Markram is ranked 14th. There are two places to go to reach. .
De Kock, who was adjudged the player of the match for scoring an unbeaten 141 that helped his team win by an innings and 63 runs, moved up 11 places to take their highest position since December 2019.
South Africa's fast bowlers have also made rapid strides after a big win.
Former top-order Kagiso Rabada has moved up two places to reach seventh after taking five wickets in the second innings, Enrique Nortje breaks into the top 30 with seven wickets in the match for the first time in his career, while Lungi in the first innings Ngidi, who has taken five wickets, has gained 14 places to be at 44th position.