Smith finishes the Ashes as number-one ranked batsman

According to ICC ratings, the  incoming Australia captain started the Ashes series at the top of the rankings on 913 points, but had lost his place to England’s Joe Root after the Trent Bridge Test. However, after scoring 143 in his side’s an innings and 46 runs victory at the The Oval, the 26-year-old has overtaken second-placed AB de Villiers, as well as Root, who has dropped to third following scores of six and 11.

Root had started the series in seventh place on 815 points and has gained 74 points and four places over the course of the series.

There was further good news for David Warner who has moved up two places to ninth after scoring 85, while Chris Rogers concluded his career in 10th place (after climbing 13 places since the start of the series) as the second-highest left-handed batsmen in the rankings behind another illustrious retiree Kumar Sangakkara, who finished his career in seventh spot.

Sangakkara, who scored 32 and 18 in Sri Lanka’s 278 runs defeat at the P.Sara Oval, first reached number-one in the Test batting rankings in December 2007 against England after innings of 92 and 152 in Kandy.

Sangakkara spent a total of 97 Tests and 812 days as the top-ranked Test batsman in the world and was last number-one in December 2014, before losing the top spot to de Villiers. His highest-ever points tally was 938, achieved on 1 December 2007, and that total is the highest-ever achieved by a Sri Lanka batsman to date and the joint sixth-highest of all-time.

Meanwhile, Michael Clarke has finished his 115-Test career in 25th spot. Clarke surged to the top of the rankings in August 2009 and did so for the last time in February 2013. During this period, he topped the batting rankings on several occasions (totaling 11 Tests and 70 days).

Clarke is one of the 30 internationals, including eight Australia batmen, to reach 900 points, which was incidentally his highest points tally that was achieved after the 2012 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.

As an Australia captain, the 34-year-old from Sydney led his team to the top of the ICC Test Team Rankings from May 2011 to July 2014.

The other big movers in the latest batting rankings are India’s Ajinkya Rahane (up two places to a career-high 20th), Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (up two to 34th) and England’s Moeen Ali (up two to a career-high 48th), while there were also notable career-high gains for Adam Voges (up 21 to 53rd), and India team-mates Lokesh Rahul (up 30 places to 87th) and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha (up 15 places to 100th).

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson has climbed two places to sixth after recording match figures of four for 86 runs in London, while Ravichandran Ashwin’s match tally of seven for 118 in Colombo has helped the off-spinner overtake Rangana Herath into eighth place on 769 points, one point behind South Africa’s Vernon Philander.

Arising from the conclusion of the fifth Ashes Test, there were gains for Peter Siddle (up three places to 14th) and Nathan Lyon (up two to 16th), while the highest England movers again were Moeen (up four places to 30th) and Ben Stokes (up one place to a career-high 41st). Mitchell Marsh has rocketed 36 places to a career-high 71st place.

Meanwhile, there were career-high gains for Sri Lanka duo of Dhammika Prasad, whose six for 125 runs in Colombo has helped him move up four places to 25th, while his team-mate Tharindu Kaushal has moved up one place to 59th.

The biggest mover in the bowling rankings, though, was India leg-spinner Amit Mishra whose match haul of seven for 72 has helped him move up 42 places to a career-high 39th.

Ashwin has also gained ground on Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan in the ICC Player Rankings for Test All-rounders and has reduced the deficit on the leader to 43 points.

The deciding third and final Test between Sri Lanka and India starts at Colombo on Friday. If India wins the series 2-1, it will overtake New Zealand and move into fifth place. However, a Sri Lanka series victory would see it progress to 96 points and overtake India into sixth place. In the event of a 1-1 tied series, Virat Kohli’s side would remain in sixth place, four points clear of Mathews’ men.

ICC TEST PLAYER RANKINGS (as on 25 August, after The Oval and P.Sara Tests)

Batsmen

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

  1           (+2)       Steven Smith        Aus         910       56.27    936 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   2          ( - )         AB de Villiers     SA          890       52.09    935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

   3          (-2)        Joe Root               Eng        889       54.66    917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   4          ( - )         Hashim Amla      SA          881       52.48    907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

   5          ( - )         Angelo Mathews SL          867       51.97    877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014

   6          (+1)       Younus Khan      Pak         829       54.07    880 v SL at Lahore 2009

   7          (-1)        K. Sangakkara     SL          827       57.40    938 v Eng at Kandy 2007

   8          ( - )       K. Williamson      NZ          813       45.70    860 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   9          (+2)       David Warner     Aus        775       46.78    880 v Ind at Adelaide 2014

  10         (-1)        Chris Rogers       Aus        761       42.87    793 v Eng at Lord's 2015

Selected rankings

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

  11         (-1)        Virat Kohli          Ind         756       45.91    784 v NZ at Wellington 2014

  15         (+4)       Alastair Cook      Eng        718       46.41    874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012

  20         (+2)       Ajinkya Rahane  Ind         699*!    46.24    699 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  22         (-1)        Murali Vijay       Ind         687       41.72    689 v Ban at Fatullah 2015

  25         (-1)        Michael Clarke   Aus        635       49.10    900 v SL at Melbourne 2012

  30         (-7)        D. Chandimal      SL          619*     45.61    646 v Ind at Galle 2015

  33         (-2)        Ian Bell                Eng        580       43.00    822 v Ind at The Oval 2011

  34=      ( - )         Kaushal Silva      SL          568*     33.97    638 v Pak at Colombo (PSS) 2015

               (+2)       D. Karunaratne   SL          568*     34.05    596 v Pak at Pallekele 2015

  45         (-5)        Ben Stokes          Eng        523*     31.57    594 v Aus at Lord's 2015

  48         (+2)       Moeen Ali           Eng        517*!     31.20    517 v Aus at The Oval 2015

  52         (+5)       Rohit Sharma      Ind         487*     37.80    578 v NZ at Wellington 2014

  53         (+21)     Adam Voges        Aus        455*!    46.00    455 v Eng at The Oval 2015

  73         (+5)       L. Thirimanne     SL          386!      26.13    386 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  81         (+6)       Mitchell Starc     Aus         354*     25.92    368 v Eng at The Oval 2013

  87         (+30)     Lokesh Rahul      Ind         328*!    31.50    328 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015

100       (+15)     W. Saha                Ind         262*!    23.66    262 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015

Bowlers

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

   1          ( - )         Dale Steyn           SA         905       22.48    909 v WI at Centurion 2014

   2          ( - )         Stuart Broad        Eng        835       29.16    852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

   3          (+1)       Trent Boult          NZ          814       27.12    825 v Eng at Lord's 2015

   4          (+1)       Yasir Shah           Pak         810*!    24.81    810 v SL at Pallekele 2015

   5          (-2)        James Anderson Eng          807       29.38    847 v WI at Barbados 2015

   6          (+2)       M. Johnson          Aus        773       27.94    849 v Pak at Dubai 2014

   7          ( - )         V. Philander        SA          770       22.13    912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013

   8          (+1)       R. Ashwin            Ind         769       28.53    808 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   9          (-3)        Rangana Herath  SL           748       30.02    851 v Pak at Colombo (SSC) 2014

  10         ( - )         Tim Southee        NZ          713       31.63    799 v WI at Jamaica 2014

Selected rankings

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

  14         (+3)       Peter Siddle         Aus        646       29.87    816 v Eng at Old Trafford 2013

  16         (+2)       Nathan Lyon       Aus        616       34.09    648 v Eng at Melbourne 2013

  18         (-3)        Mitchell Starc     Aus         596*     31.80    627 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2015

  20         ( - )         Steven Finn         Eng        576       28.58    624 v NZ at Headingley 2013

  21         ( - )         Ishant Sharma     Ind         553       37.58    671 v WI at Dominica 2011

  25         (+4)       D. Prasad             SL          522*!    41.22    522 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  30         (+4)       Moeen Ali           Eng        457*     36.04    480 v Aus at Cardiff 2015

  39         (+42)     Amit Mishra        Ind         400*!    36.63    400 v SL at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  41         (+1)       Ben Stokes          Eng        390*!    40.55    390 v Aus at The Oval 2015

  44         (+3)       Umesh Yadav     Ind         378*     38.26    412 v Aus at Melbourne 2014

  59         (+1)       T. Kaushal           SL         295*!    40.21    295 v Ind at Colombo (PSS) 2015

  71         (+36)     Mitchell Marsh   Aus        243*!    34.77    243 v Eng at The Oval 2015

All-rounders

Rank    (+/-)        Player                  Team     Points    HS Ranking

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

   2          ( - )         R. Ashwin            Ind         341       419 v WI at Mumbai 2013

   3          ( - )         V. Philander         SA         337*/    376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014

   4          ( - )         Stuart Broad         Eng        294       382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012

   5          ( - )         M. Johnson          Aus        263       384 v Eng at Cardiff 2009

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.