Australia middle-order batter Marnus Labuschagne has climbed up to the top of the ICC rankings in men’s cricket. Labuschagne replaced England captain Joe Root who dropped down to the second spot. The 27-year-old has played 20 Tests and struck 2113 runs at 62.14 including six centuries and 12 fifties including a high score of 215.He scored 103 and 51 during the Adelaide Test helping Australia to a massive 275-run win over England as they went up 2-0 in the five-match series. Steve Smith completes the top-three followed by New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and India opener Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli is the other India batter in the top-10, occupying the seventh spot.
His teammate Mitchell Starc broke into the top 10 for Test bowlers after returning figures of 6/80 in the second Test, which included a four-for in the first innings that helped reduce England to 236. He moves up to the 9th spot.Starc was also quite handy with the bat in both the innings, scoring 39* and 19, which sees him climb a spot in the Test all-rounders' ranking to No.6.In the Player Rankings for T20Is, Pakistan captain Babar Azam reclaimed the top spot in the list for batters after just one week of losing it. With scores of 0 and 7 in the first two T20Is against the West Indies, Bazar dropped two spots to No.3 in last week's rankings update. He came roaring back and is now tied at the top of the rankings with Dawid Malan after a brilliant 79 in the final T20I that helped Pakistan complete a clean sweep over West Indies. His fellow opener Mohammad Rizwan, who has had a tremendous 2021, capped the year by climbing to No.3 in T20I batters' rankings with career-best ratings of 798.
