ICC rankings: Williamson on top of the world

Williamson scored 108 not out, his 13th century in 46 Tests, as New Zealand achieved the 189-run target with five wickets to spare. Williamson, who also played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008, earned 11 points for his efforts, which was enough to put him ahead of England’s Joe Root and AB de Villiers of South Africa in the number-one batting spot.

 Turner was at the top for 425 days between 1973 and 1975, but this was before the rankings were officially launched in 1987. The other highest-ranked New Zealand batsmen have been Martin Crowe (third), John F Reid (third), John R Reid (fourth), Bert Sutcliffe (fourth), Mark Richardson (sixth) and John Wright (seventh).

 In terms of points, the leading New Zealand batsman ever is Williamson, who achieved 893 points last month.  He is followed by Ross Taylor (871 in 2013), Turner (845 in 1974) and Geoff Howarth (804 in 1981).

With the ball, Richard Hadlee was the number-one ranked bowler for 1,824 days between 1984 and 1990, while Jack Cowie topped the bowling chart for 266 days in 1947.

Root and de Villiers, along with Australia’s fourth-ranked Steven Smith and fifth-ranked David Warner, will go into the Boxing Day Tests aiming to finish the year as the number-one ranked Test batsman. Root and de Villiers trail Williamson by three and eight points, respectively, while Smith is 15 points and Warner 26 points behind the New Zealander.

It has been an outstanding year for Williamson. He started the year in 13th position, but after scoring 1,172 runs in 16 innings and eight Tests with five centuries and four half-centuries, he has stormed to the top of the tree.

Sri Lanka’s middle-order batsman Milinda Siriwardana has broken into the top 50 for the first time in his career after vaulting 18 places. He is now in 48th position after scoring 62 and 26 in the Hamilton Test.

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, New Zealand’s Tim Southee has returned to the top 10 after rising two places to the 10th position. Southee, who won the Player of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008 award, returned figures of three for 63 and four for 26.

Southee’s team-mate Doug Bracewell has moved up four places to 36th after match figures of four for 112, while Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera has achieved a career-best ranking of 50th. Chameera recorded figures of five for 47 and four for 68, for which he has been rewarded with a jump of 39 places.

The bowling table is headed by South Africa’s Dale Steyn. He leads India’s Ravichandran Ashwin by just four points, which means the fast bowler will have to perform strongly in the Boxing Day Test against England to retain the top spot.
 
Meanwhile, sixth-ranked New Zealand has earned four points for its 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka and has, thus, joined England on 99 points on the ICC Test Championship table. However, New Zealand is ranked below England when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal points.

 Seventh-ranked Sri Lanka, in contrast, has conceded four points and has slipped to 89 points, 13 points ahead of eighth-ranked West Indies.

The ICC Test Championship table will now be updated at the end of Australia-West Indies series, while the player rankings will be updated at the conclusion of the Boxing Day Tests.

Forthcoming Tests:

26-30 December – 2nd Test, Australia v West Indies, Melbourne

26-30 December – 1st Test, South Africa v England, Durban

ICC Test Team Championship (as on 21 December, after the end of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Test series)

Rank   Team              Points

1          South Africa   114

2          India                110

3          Australia         109
4          Pakistan          106
5          England           99

6          New Zealand   99
7          Sri Lanka        89
8          West Indies     76
9          Bangladesh     47
10        Zimbabwe       5

 
(Developed by David Kendix)
 
ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 21 December, after the end of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Test series)
 
Batsmen (top 10)
 
Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Points    Avge      HS Ranking

   1         (+2)       K. Williamson     NZ         889       49.93    893 v Aus at Perth 2015

   2         (-1)        Joe Root               Eng        886        54.90    917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   3         (-1)        AB de Villiers     SA         881        51.39    935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

   4         ( - )        Steven Smith       Aus        874        54.61    936 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   5         ( - )        David Warner      Aus        863        50.64    880 v NZ at Perth 2015

   6         ( - )        Younus Khan       Pak        826        53.94    880 v SL at Lahore 2009

   7         (+1)       Hashim Amla      SA         810        50.64    907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

   8         (-1)        Angelo Mathews SL          808        50.18    877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014

   9         ( - )        Alastair Cook      Eng        803        47.47    874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012

  10        ( - )        Misbah-ul-Haq    Pak        764        48.89    842 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2014

 
Selected rankings (top 50)

Rank     (+/-)       Player   Team    Points    Avge      HS Ranking

  12        (-1)        Ross Taylor         NZ         730        45.49    871 v WI at Hamilton 2013

  20        (-3)        B. McCullum       NZ         677        38.48    760 v SL at Christchurch 2014

  21        ( - )        D. Chandimal      SL          675        45.87    690 v NZ at Dunedin 2015

  29        ( - )        D. Karunaratne    SL          593        35.26    619 v WI at Galle 2015

  30        (+1)       BJ Watling          NZ         583        37.71    644 v Eng at Headingley 2015

  32        (-2)        Tom Latham        NZ         572*     39.33    590 v SL at Dunedin 2015

  42        ( - )        Kaushal Silva      SL          513        31.90    638 v Pak at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  48        (+18)     M. Siriwardana    SL          463*!    37.57    463 v NZ at Hamilton 2015
 

Bowlers (top 10)
 

Rank     (+/-        Player                  Team     Points    Avge      Highest Ranking

   1         ( - )        Dale Steyn           SA         875        22.56    909 v WI at Centurion 2014

   2         ( - )        R. Ashwin            Ind         871!      25.39    871 v SA at Delhi 2015

   3=       ( - )        James Anderson  Eng        846        28.96    847 v WI at Barbados 2015

              ( - )        Yasir Shah           Pak        846*!    24.17    846 v Eng at Sharjah 2015

   5         ( - )        Stuart Broad        Eng        840        29.12    852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   6         (+1)       Josh Hazlewood  Aus        792*!    22.65    792 v WI at Hobart 2015

   7         (+1)       Ravindra Jadeja   Ind         789*!    23.76    789 v SA at Delhi 2015

   8         (-2)        Trent Boult          NZ         787        28.28    825 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   9         ( - )        Vernon Philander SA         746        22.08    912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

  10        (+2)       Tim Southee        NZ         731        31.47    799 v WI at Jamaica 2014

 

Selected rankings (top 50)

 

Rank      (+/-)      Player                  Team     Points   Avge    Highest Ranking

  12        (-2)        Rangana Herath   SL          712        29.87    851 v Pak at Colombo (SSC) 2014

  23        ( - )        Neil Wagner        NZ         553*!    33.34    553 v SL at Hamilton 2015

  36        (+4)       Doug Bracewell   NZ         427*     37.29    538 v WI at Jamaica 2012

  50        (+39)     D. Chameera        SL          354*!    28.27    354 v NZ at Hamilton 2015

 
All-Rounders (top 5)

Rank     (+/-)       Player        Team              Points      Highest Ranking

  1          ( - )        R. Ashwin            Ind         406       419 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   2         ( - )        Shakib Al Hasan  Ban        384       419 v Zim at Khulna 2014

   3         ( - )        Stuart Broad        Eng        315       382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012

   4         ( - )        Vernon Philander SA         298*/    376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014

   5         ( - )        Ravindra Jadeja   Ind         259*/*! 259 v SA at Delhi 2015