Virat Kohli continued his brilliant run of form as the Indian cricket team skipper finished 2019 as the top ranked Test batsman in the ICC rankings. With 928 points, he was comfortably ahead of Steve Smith (911) and Kane Williamson (822) in the list. Kohli edged past compatriot Rohit Sharma to extend his own record as the leading run-getter in a calendar year for the 4th year running. Since 2016, Kohli has finished with the most number of runs in all Tests, ODIs and T20Is combined, each year. While in 2016, Kohli top-scored with 2595 runs to his name, he followed that up with 2818 and 2735 runs in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
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Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were the two other Indians in the batsmen list as they retained their positions at 5th and 7th respectively. Quinton De Kock, who scored 85 during the first Test between England and South Africa, climbed eight spots to claim the 10th position behind Joe Root.
In the bowlers’ list, Pat Cummins was at the top of the pile with 902 points while New Zealand fast bowler Neil Wagner climbed a spot to take the second position.
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Cummins, who has been in superb form all through the year, finished with 99 international wickets to become the leading wicket-taker in 2019.He has taken 99 wickets at an incredible average of 20.50. Cummins is followed by teammate Mitchell Starc (77 wickets) and India’s Mohammad Shami (77 wickets). In many ways, 2019 has been a year for the fast bowlers across all the formats. Kapil Dev topped the wicket-charts in 1979, while Glenn McGrath held the feat at the end of 1999 and Mitchell Johnson was the leading wicket-taker in 2009.
{{/usCountry}}Cummins, who has been in superb form all through the year, finished with 99 international wickets to become the leading wicket-taker in 2019.He has taken 99 wickets at an incredible average of 20.50. Cummins is followed by teammate Mitchell Starc (77 wickets) and India’s Mohammad Shami (77 wickets). In many ways, 2019 has been a year for the fast bowlers across all the formats. Kapil Dev topped the wicket-charts in 1979, while Glenn McGrath held the feat at the end of 1999 and Mitchell Johnson was the leading wicket-taker in 2009.
{{/usCountry}}India have three bowlers in the Top 10 with Jasprit Bumrah retaining his sixth spot and the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami claiming the ninth and tenth position respectively.