London: India captain Virat Kohli on Sunday leapfrogged Australia’s Steve Smith to become the No.1 Test batsman in the world, the International Cricket Council confirmed in a media release. Kohli is the seventh Indian and first since India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this milestone.
Kohli, who scored 149 and 51 in the Edgbaston Test against England, ended Steve Smith’s 32-month reign as the top-ranked batsman and reached the top of the summit for the first time in his 67-Test career.
Smith had held the top spot since December 2015. Kohli now leads the former Australia captain 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, according to ICC.
Tendulkar had joined South Africa’s Jacques Kallis in number-one position in January 2011, but had dropped to second spot following the Jamaica Test in June 2011 after he had missed the three-Test series against the West Indies.
Apart from Kohli and Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other India batsmen to have achieved the number-one ranking 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 ICC Cricket Hall of Famer 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.
