DUBAI – Virat Kohli has achieved another personal milestone by becoming theseventh India batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011, to topthe ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, which were released on Sundaymorning following the conclusion of the Edgbaston Test.

Kohli scored 149 and 51 in India’s 31-run defeat and has gone up by 31points, which have helped him to end Steve Smith’s 32-month reign as thetop-ranked batsman and reach the top of the summit for the first time inhis 67-Test career.

Kohli now leads Smith (who had held the top spot since December 2015) byfive points, but will have to maintain the form in the remaining four Teststo finish the series as the world’s highest-ranked batsman.

Tendulkar had joined South Africa’s Jacques Kallis in number-one positionin January 2011, but had dropped to second spot following the Jamaica Testin June 2011 after he had missed the three-Test series against the WestIndies.

Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, SunilGavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmento have achieved number-one rankings during their careers.

However, at 934 points, Kohli has become India’s highest-ranked batsman,14th overall, on the all-time tally of points. Kohli had entered theEdgbaston Test on 903 points, 13 points behind Gavaskar, and is now aheadof the ICC Cricket Hall of Famer by 18 points.

If Kohli can deliver another strong performance in the second Test atLord’s, then he can break into the top-10 by leapfrogging Matthew Hayden,Kallis and AB de Villiers, whose highest points tally was 935 each. DonaldBradman (961) and Steve Smith (947) are the two batsmen sitting on top ofthis exclusive list.

Kohli, who powered India to the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup title in 2008 andthen won the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer ofthe Year in 2017, is the 76th player to top the Test batting rankings. Heis also the number-one ranked ODI batsman, but is ranked 12th in T20Is, 220points behind number-one ranked Aaron Finch of Australia.

England’s 20-year-old Sam Curran is another fascinating story from what wasa nerve-wracking 1000th England men’s Test.

The left-handed all-rounder scored 24 and 63 with the bat, and claimedmatch figures of five for 92 with the ball, which not only earned him theplayer of the match award but significant gains in the latest rankings.Sam Curran

In the batting table, Curran has jumped from 152nd to 72nd, the bowlingtable has seen him rise 49 places to 62nd, while in the all-rounders’category, he now sits in 37th position after jumping 58 places.

England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow is the other England playerto improve his ranking. The Yorkshireman now shares 12th position with theWest Indies’ Kraigg Brathwaite after moving up four places.

The batsmen to lose ground after the Edgbaston Test include Alistair Cook17th (down by four places), Lokesh Rahul 19th (down by one place), AjinkyaRahane 22nd (down by three places), Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, whonow share 25th position after slipping two and one spots, respectively, andBen Stokes 33rd (down by five places).

In the bowlers’ table, Stuart Broad and Mohammed Shami are the two bowlersinside the top-20 who have headed in the opposite direction, while JamesAnderson has retained his top position but his lead over Kagiso Rabada hasbeen reduced to two points.

Broad is now ranked 13th after falling one place, while Shami is in 19thspot after sliding two places.

Stokes has compensated for his double failure with the bat by taking sixwickets in the Test, including three of India’s last four wickets. For thisperformance, he has been rewarded with a rise of four places, which has puthim in 27th position.

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has gained 14 points following hisfour for 62 and three for 59, which means he now trails South Africa’sfourth-ranked Vernon Philander by just one point, while Ishant Sharma hascollected 19 points to move within 13 points of 25th-ranked team-mateBhuvneshwar Kumar.

The Test player rankings will now be updated following the Lord’s Test,which begins on Thursday, 9 August.