Latest ICC Test player ratings.

[Donny]

Batting.

Travis Head the big mover. Up to #4. Warner down 6 places, to #31. Carey up 9, to #48.

1. Marnus Labuschagne 936
2. Babar Azam 875
3. Steve Smith 870
4. Travis Head 826
4. Joe Root 826
6. Rishabh Pant 794
7. Kane Williamson 786
8. Dimuth Karunaratne 748
9. Rohit Sharma 739
10. Usman Khawaja 719

[Pies4shaw]

^ The "World's Best Batsman" is at 7, I see.

Great to see 4 Australians in the top 10.

[Donny]

Batting.

The movers are Williamson and Warner, for their double tons.

1 M. Labuschagne 925
2 S.P. Smith 883
3 Babar Azam 882
4 T.M. Head 833
5 K.S. Williamson 828
6 J.E. Root 826
7 R.R. Pant 797
8 F.D. Karunaratne 748
9 R.G. Sharma 732
10 D.J. Mitchell 716

12 Usman Khawaja 700
14 David Warner 694
28 Alex Carey 628

[Donny]

Bowling.

1 872 Pat Cummins
2 835 James Anderson
3 812 Jasprit Bumrah
3 812 Ravi Ashwin
5 805 Ollie Robinson
6 797 Kagiso Rabada
7 795 Shaheen Afridi
8 780 Kyle Jamieson
9 757 Mitchell Starc
10 732 Trent Boult

11 731 Nathan Lyon

[Pies4shaw]

Batting:

1 M. Labuschagne AUS 929
2 S.P.D. Smith AUS 892
3 Babar Azam PAK 862
4 T.M. Head AUS 841
5 J.E. Root ENG 826
6 K.S. Williamson NZ 810
7 R.R. Pant IND 797
8 U.T. Khawaja AUS 770
9 F.D.M. Karunaratne SL 748
10 R.G. Sharma IND 732

Root swaps with Williamson, SpecialK to 8th (from 12th) and Marnus and SPD Bradsmith expand the gap between them and the rest. Head hasn't moved but is closing in on Babar Azam.

Bowling:

1 P.J. Cummins AUS 878
2 J.M. Anderson ENG 835
3 J.J. Bumrah IND 812
3 R. Ashwin IND 812
5 O.E. Robinson ENG 805
6 Shaheen Afridi PAK 787
7 K. Rabada SA 776
8 K.A. Jamieson NZ 772
9 M.A. Starc AUS 749
10 J.R. Hazlewood AUS 733

[Donny]

Batting.

1 921 Marnus Labuschagne
2 897 Steve Smith
3 862 Babar Azam
4 833 Travis Head
5 826 Joe Root
6 810 Kane Williamson
7 789 Rishabh Pant
8 786 Rohit Sharma
9 748 Dimuth Karunaratne
10 732 Usman Khawaja

20 651 David Warner

[Donny]

Bowling.

1 867 Pat Cummins
2 846 Ravi Ashwin
3 835 James Anderson
4 805 Ollie Robinson
5 803 Jasprit Bumrah
6 787 Shaheen Afridi
7 776 Kagiso Rabada
8 772 Kyle Jamieson
9 742 Mitchell Starc
10 726 Josh Hazlewood

17 675 Nathan Lyon

[Donny]

Little change in the batting.

Pat Cummins drops to third on the bowlers' list. James Anderson moves up to #1, then Ravi Ashwin.

Ravindra Jadeja into the top 10.

[Pies4shaw]

There's something seriously wrong with the way these batting ratings are calculated. Plainly, they give too much weight to performances from the distant past.

Williamson, eg, has a Test average of just 38.57 in the last 2 years. Indeed, he's only reached 50 twice in Tests in that time - and his average is boosted by the fact that he was not out both times - and one of those was a 200* in the drawn Karachi Boxing Day Test, where over 1,000 runs were scored between the two teams (four centuries, a 92, an 86 and a 65) in the two first innings. Take out the 200* and the 52* and his Test batting over the last 2 years looks a little like Nathan Lyon's.

He's not the 6th best Test batsmen in the World over the last 2 years. By runs, he is 52nd, with 540 Test runs in the last two years (and 252* of those 540 in two innings). By average, he is 55th. And there are 29 players who have averaged at least 50 in Tests in the last two years. Of those, the ones who have managed an average of 50 over as many or more Tests than Williamson has played in the last 2 years are Khawaja, Chandimal, Babar Azam, Mitchell, Imam-ul-Haq, Karunaratne, Marnus, Root, Head, Smith and Conway. Of them, Chandimal, Mitchell and Conway are not in the "top 10".

[Pies4shaw]

Following on from that, the Test averages for the last 2 years of the ICC "top 10" Test batsmen are:

53.23 Marnus
51.21 Bradsmith
56.62 Babar Azam
51.40 Head
51.61 Root
44.08 Pant
47.12 Sharma
38.57 Williamson
54.64 Karunaratne
68.40 Khawaja

[Donny]

Update, next Wednesday.

Will be interesting.

Labu scored 3 & 63* v. India.

Smith 38 & 10*

Khawaja 180.

Head 32 & 90.

Williamson 1 & 121*.

Kohli 185.

Rohit 35.

------------------------

Bowling.

Ashwin 6/91 v. Australia.

Rabada 2/18 & 2/19.

[Pies4shaw]

^ Well, we all know Khawaja should be ranked number 1 - his Test average over the last 2 years is now 69.91.

The ICC simply must rethink it's weightings. It is incredible that he is ranked behind a player who averages over 25 runs fewer per innings and has made less than half as many runs over that same period. Seriously, at what point does weighting for past runs stop? Maybe Sir IVAR should still be ranked number 1 - after all, he was the best ever.

[Pies4shaw]

The rankings for batting presently show as:

Marnus 919
Smith 873
Root 871
Babar Azam 862
Head 843
Williamson 797
Blundell (whoever he is) 782
Pant 773
Special K 757
Karunaratne 748.

Blundell must be an actual mistake. He has made 1,638 Test runs in his career at an average of 44.27. In the time since Blundell debuted, Khawaja has made 2,756 at an average of 50.1. In the last two years, Khawaja has made 1,608 runs at 69.91, with 6 centuries and 7 50s (compared with Blundell's 1,100 at 47.82, with 2 centuries and 8 50s). Also, his career average is higher than Blundell's - so, it makes no sense whatsoever that Blundell should be "above" him in the ICC Test batting rankings.

[Donny]

"Khawaja can lay claim to being the world’s best Test batter after his superb innings, the third-highest score by an Australian in India, as the tourists romped to 480, their highest score of the series by some distance."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/other/khawaja-now-world-s-best-batter-while-green-s-ton-puts-rival-nations-on-notice-as-aussies-grind-india-into-dust/ar-AA18u0fW?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=4df76ffde7b34c26a227b65b7f318645&ei=15.

[Donny]

Labu (63*) and Head (90) in the Test.

Williamson was 121* in the Caps' win against Sri Lanka and Kohli scored 186 for India.

Rohit hit 35.

Ashwin took 7 wickets against Oz.