Kane Williamson has become the second New Zealand batsman after Glenn Turner to top the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen after producing a man of the match performance in the Hamilton Test against Sri Lanka, which helped the home side win the match by five wickets and the series 2-0.
Williamson scored 108 not out, his 13th century in 46 Tests, as New Zealand achieved the 189-run target with five wickets to spare. Williamson, who also played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008, earned 11 points for his efforts, which was enough to put him ahead of England’s Joe Root and AB de Villiers of South Africa in the number-one batting spot.
Turner was at the top for 425 days between 1973 and 1975, but this was before the rankings were officially launched in 1987. The other highest-ranked New Zealand batsmen have been Martin Crowe (third), John F Reid (third), John R Reid (fourth), Bert Sutcliffe (fourth), Mark Richardson (sixth) and John Wright (seventh).
In terms of points, the leading New Zealand batsman ever is Williamson, who achieved 893 points last month. He is followed by Ross Taylor (871 in 2013), Turner (845 in 1974) and Geoff Howarth (804 in 1981).
With the ball, Richard Hadlee was the number-one ranked bowler for 1,824 days between 1984 and 1990, while Jack Cowie topped the bowling chart for 266 days in 1947.
Root and de Villiers, along with Australia’s fourth-ranked Steven Smith and fifth-ranked David Warner, will go into the Boxing Day Tests aiming to finish the year as the number-one ranked Test batsman. Root and de Villiers trail Williamson by three and eight points, respectively, while Smith is 15 points and Warner 26 points behind the New Zealander.
It has been an outstanding year for Williamson. He started the year in 13th position, but after scoring 1,172 runs in 16 innings and eight Tests with five centuries and four half-centuries, he has stormed to the top of the tree.
Sri Lanka’s middle-order batsman Milinda Siriwardana has broken into the top 50 for the first time in his career after vaulting 18 places. He is now in 48th position after scoring 62 and 26 in the Hamilton Test.
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, New Zealand’s Tim Southee has returned to the top 10 after rising two places to the 10th position. Southee, who won the Player of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008 award, returned figures of three for 63 and four for 26.
Southee’s team-mate Doug Bracewell has moved up four places to 36th after match figures of four for 112, while Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera has achieved a career-best ranking of 50th. Chameera recorded figures of five for 47 and four for 68, for which he has been rewarded with a jump of 39 places.
The bowling table is headed by South Africa’s Dale Steyn. He leads India’s Ravichandran Ashwin by just four points, which means the fast bowler will have to perform strongly in the Boxing Day Test against England to retain the top spot.
Meanwhile, sixth-ranked New Zealand has earned four points for its 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka and has, thus, joined England on 99 points on the ICC Test Championship table. However, New Zealand is ranked below England when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal points.
Seventh-ranked Sri Lanka, in contrast, has conceded four points and has slipped to 89 points, 13 points ahead of eighth-ranked West Indies.
The ICC Test Championship table will now be updated at the end of Australia-West Indies series, while the player rankings will be updated at the conclusion of the Boxing Day Tests.
Forthcoming Tests:
26-30 December – 2nd Test, Australia v West Indies, Melbourne
26-30 December – 1st Test, South Africa v England, Durban
ICC Test Team Championship (as on 21 December, after the end of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Test series)
Rank Team Points
1 South Africa 114
2 India 110
3 Australia 109
4 Pakistan 106
5 England 99
6 New Zealand 99
7 Sri Lanka 89
8 West Indies 76
9 Bangladesh 47
10 Zimbabwe 5
(Developed by David Kendix)
ICC Test Player Rankings (as on 21 December, after the end of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Test series)
Batsmen (top 10)
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 (+2) K. Williamson NZ 889 49.93 893 v Aus at Perth 2015
2 (-1) Joe Root Eng 886 54.90 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
3 (-1) AB de Villiers SA 881 51.39 935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
4 ( - ) Steven Smith Aus 874 54.61 936 v Eng at Lord's 2015
5 ( - ) David Warner Aus 863 50.64 880 v NZ at Perth 2015
6 ( - ) Younus Khan Pak 826 53.94 880 v SL at Lahore 2009
7 (+1) Hashim Amla SA 810 50.64 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013
8 (-1) Angelo Mathews SL 808 50.18 877 v NZ at Christchurch 2014
9 ( - ) Alastair Cook Eng 803 47.47 874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012
10 ( - ) Misbah-ul-Haq Pak 764 48.89 842 v NZ at Abu Dhabi 2014
Selected rankings (top 50)
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
12 (-1) Ross Taylor NZ 730 45.49 871 v WI at Hamilton 2013
20 (-3) B. McCullum NZ 677 38.48 760 v SL at Christchurch 2014
21 ( - ) D. Chandimal SL 675 45.87 690 v NZ at Dunedin 2015
29 ( - ) D. Karunaratne SL 593 35.26 619 v WI at Galle 2015
30 (+1) BJ Watling NZ 583 37.71 644 v Eng at Headingley 2015
32 (-2) Tom Latham NZ 572* 39.33 590 v SL at Dunedin 2015
42 ( - ) Kaushal Silva SL 513 31.90 638 v Pak at Colombo (PSS) 2015
48 (+18) M. Siriwardana SL 463*! 37.57 463 v NZ at Hamilton 2015
Bowlers (top 10)
Rank (+/- Player Team Points Avge Highest Ranking
1 ( - ) Dale Steyn SA 875 22.56 909 v WI at Centurion 2014
2 ( - ) R. Ashwin Ind 871! 25.39 871 v SA at Delhi 2015
3= ( - ) James Anderson Eng 846 28.96 847 v WI at Barbados 2015
( - ) Yasir Shah Pak 846*! 24.17 846 v Eng at Sharjah 2015
5 ( - ) Stuart Broad Eng 840 29.12 852 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015
6 (+1) Josh Hazlewood Aus 792*! 22.65 792 v WI at Hobart 2015
7 (+1) Ravindra Jadeja Ind 789*! 23.76 789 v SA at Delhi 2015
8 (-2) Trent Boult NZ 787 28.28 825 v Eng at Lord's 2015
9 ( - ) Vernon Philander SA 746 22.08 912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013
10 (+2) Tim Southee NZ 731 31.47 799 v WI at Jamaica 2014
