Pat Cummins and Ben Stokes finished the year as the No. 1 Test bowler and allrounder respectively
On the back of his Man-of-the-Match performance against Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson moved to No. 1 on the ICC Rankings for Test Batsmen in the final update of 2020.
Williamson, who was third in the previous update, moved two spots up, going past India’s Virat Kohli and Australia’s Steven Smith into first. Kohli, who missed the Boxing Day Test against Australia due to paternity leave, finished the year at No. 2 while Smith, who made scores of 8 and 0 in his last two innings, dropped to No. 3.
Williamson last earned the No. 1 ranking in 2015 after which the top spot alternated between Kohli and Smith. Ajinkya Rahane, who hit a century in the second Test against Australia, moved up five spots to No. 6, while Marnus Labuschagne and Babar Azam held on to Nos. 4 and 5 respectively.
Among the bowlers, Pat Cummins finished the year as the No. 1 Test bowler, well ahead of England’s Stuart Broad at No. 2. The New Zealand fast-bowling pair of Neil Wagner and Tim Southee are at Nos. 3 and 4, while Mitchell Starc moved two spots up to No. 5. R Ashwin too moved two spots to No. 7, and is the only spinner in the top ten.
The ranking for Test all-rounders remained unchanged with England’s Ben Stokes at No. 1. Jason Holder, Ravindra Jadeja, Shakib Al Hasan and Mitchell Starc round up the top five.