The drop in rankings of India's top-order batters, barring KL Rahul, continued on Wednesday as ICC released the updated Test rankings chart a day before the start of the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Melbourne. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill all incurred all suffered a fall in the list, with the two senior batters hitting yet another low.
Jaiswal, who soared to a career-high No. 2 after his match-winning knock of 161 in Perth in the first Test match against Australia and was on the verge of taking the top spot, slipped to the fifth position. Pant, on the other hand, who was expected to make the most of his return to the Gabba four years after his heroics at the venue to help India win a second consecutive Test tour of Australia, went two places down to No.11 in the rankings after managing just nine runs in the third Test. Gill's woeful run outside home continued after he was dismissed for just one in Brisbane, thus falling four places to No. 20.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma suffer major fall
Kohli, who sparked hopes of a comeback with a century in the second innings in Perth, dropped to No. 21 after being dismissed for a score of just three in the third Test against Australia. Should his lean patch continue in Melbourne, Kohli could suffer a worst year-end finish on the ICC ranking chart since 2012, when he had improved four places to take the 36th spot in the list after a knock of 103 against England at home. And, if he drops three places or worse on the list after a double failure at the MCG, Kohli could hit a 10-year low, having last ranked 24th or below in August 2014, during his forgettable England tour.
{{/usCountry}}Kohli, who sparked hopes of a comeback with a century in the second innings in Perth, dropped to No. 21 after being dismissed for a score of just three in the third Test against Australia. Should his lean patch continue in Melbourne, Kohli could suffer a worst year-end finish on the ICC ranking chart since 2012, when he had improved four places to take the 36th spot in the list after a knock of 103 against England at home. And, if he drops three places or worse on the list after a double failure at the MCG, Kohli could hit a 10-year low, having last ranked 24th or below in August 2014, during his forgettable England tour.
{{/usCountry}}Rohit, on the other hand, hit a six-year low after his ranking dropped to 35th as his poor run of form since September continued. During the period, he has scored only 152 in 13 innings at 11.69, comprising just one half-century knock.