Virat Kohli Follows Tendulkar To Achieve This Unique Record

Virat Kohli has achieved another personal milestone by becoming the seventh India batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011, to top the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen, which were released on Sunday morning after the Edgbaston Test.

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

Kohli now leads Smith  by five points, but will have to maintain the form in the remaining four Tests to finish the series as the world’s highest-ranked batsman.

Tendulkar was on number-one position in January 2011. Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmen to 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 the Edgbaston Test on 903 points, 13 points behind Gavaskar, and is now ahead of the little master by 18 points.

If Kohli can deliver another strong performance in the second Test at Lord’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. Donald Bradman (961) and Steve Smith (947) are the two batsmen sitting on top of this exclusive list.

ALL-TIME BEST RATING POINTS – INDIAN BATSMEN IN TESTS

934 – Virat Kohli, v England, 04/08/2018
916 – Sunil Gavaskar, v England, 03/09/1979
898 – Sachin Tendulkar, v Zimbabwe, 25/02/2002
892 – Rahul Dravid, v Pakistan, 20/03/2005
888 – Cheteshwar Pujara, v Sri Lanka, 07/08/2017