Dubai, Dec 7 (PTI) Riding on his career-best 243 in thethird Test against Sri Lanka, India captain Virat Kohli todayjumped three places to grab the second position among batsmenin the ICC Test rankings.
Kohli's double ton was followed by a 50 in the secondinnings as he finished with 610 runs in the series, whichIndia won 1-0 after the first and third Test ended in draws inKolkata and New Delhi.
Kohli, who slammed back-to-back double-centuries andrecorded three-figure scores in three consecutive matches,started the series in sixth position but has leapfrogged DavidWarner, Cheteshwar Pujara, Kane Williamson and Joe Root afterthe stupendous run which saw him average 152.50.
Though 45 points separate him from Australia captainSteve Smith, Kohli would be eyeing the chance of reaching thezenith in all three formats since he is the current No. 1 inODIs and T20Is, the ICC said in a statement.
Smith though has been in a different league and last weekreached 941 points, the joint fifth-highest in terms of thehighest points tally in batting history in Tests. Smith is nowon 938 points while Kohli is on 893 points.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is the onlybatsman to have been at the top in all three formats at thesame time – in December-January 2005-06, while his compatriotMatthew Hayden is the other batsman to have topped all threeformats.
Though Smith enjoys a substantial lead over Kohli, thecompetition for second to fifth positions remains intense.
Before this Test, only 11 points separated second-rankedPujara from fifth-ranked Kohli.
Following the latest performances, the gap has increasedslightly with 28 points now separating second-ranked Kohlifrom fifth-ranked Williamson.
Among other Indians, opener Murali Vijay (up three placesto 25th) and middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma (up six placesto 40th) are the other batsmen to move up.
Pujara slipped two places to the fourth spot, whileRavindra jadeja slumped to the third position after losing aplace in the bolwers ranking. R Ashwin was steady at thefourth spot.
In the allrounder list, Jadeja was at the second spot,while Ashwin lost a place to be at the fourth position.
For Sri Lanka, captain Dinesh Chandimal has gained eightplaces to take ninth position after finishing the series with366 runs, the first time he has moved into the top 10.
All-rounder Angelo Mathews has moved up seven places to23rd position after scoring 111 in the first innings whileDhananjaya de Silva's match-saving 119 in the second inningshas lifted him nine places to 47th position.
In the ICC Test Team Rankings, India has lost one pointbut remains well ahead of South Africa at the top of therankings, while Sri Lanka remains on its pre-series tally of94 points in sixth place. PTI ATK PMPM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.