File photo of Yashasvi Jaiswal© AFP
Young India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal on Wednesday broke into the top-10 of the ICC rankings for Test batters for the first time in his career on the back of his tremendous form in the ongoing home series against England. Jaiswal, who made his Test debut in 2023, jumped two places to be at 10th spot with 727 rating points to his kitty. In red-hot form with the bat against England, Jaiswal has already created history by joining an exclusive club of Indian batters to have scored 600 and more runs in a Test series. He is the lone left-handed batter to have achieved the feat.
The 22-year-old is only the fifth Indian ever to have crossed the 600-run mark in a Test series with others being Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Sardesai, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli.
With 655 runs in four Tests at 93.57 which includes two fifties and as many centuries — both converted into double hundreds — Jaiswal could well be targeting the legendary Sunil Gavaskar’s record of most runs (774) for any Indian batter in a Test series.
Meanwhile, a fine knock of 131 in Rajkot in the third Test against England has propelled Rohit Sharma to the 11th spot with the Indian skipper moving up two positions.
Star batter Virat Kohli, who has missed the entire five-Test series against England, also moved up one spot to be at eighth.
Among the top three batters, Joe Root replaced Steve Smith at the second spot after the English batter scored a quality century in the fourth Test in Ranchi but the Australian’s struggle persisting for big scores at the opening slot.
A loss in form with the bat for Marnus Labuschagne meant the right-handed Australian batter slipped as many as five positions after twin failures in the Wellington Test against New Zealand.
Among bowlers, India’s Ravindra Jadeja slipped one spot to be at seventh but Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon both moved up in the rankings to get to fourth and sixth respectively, following Australia’s huge win by 172 runs over New Zealand.
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