ICC rankings: Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne No. 1 batter, Rohit Sharma fifth, Virat Kohli No. 7
Dubai, December 22
Indian captain Virat Kohli slipped a notch to be placed seventh in the latest ICC rankings for Test batters even as Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, riding on his prolific Ashes form, displaced England skipper Joe Root to become the new world No. 1. India’s Rohit Sharma remained static at fifth position.
After making his debut three years back against Pakistan, Labuschagne lost his place in the side and only returned as a concussion substitute for Smith in the 2019 Ashes series in England. The 27-year-old, who started the ongoing series ranked fourth, has an average of 62.14, which is second only to Don Bradman’s legendary mark of 99.94 among those who have batted in 20 innings or more.
Among the bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin is still in second place behind Australia pacer Pat Cummins. — PTI
‘Ganguly wrong to speak on captaincy issue’
Mumbai: Former India captain and chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar feels that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly wasn’t right in airing his views about the issue of Virat Kohli’s captaincy. “Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. He is the BCCI president. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it’s the chairman of selection committee, Chetan Sharma, who should speak,” Vengsarkar said. “A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee and that is not Ganguly’s jurisdiction at all,” he added. pti
