Joe Root tops ICC Test batting rankings for first time in nearly six years

The England captain has supplanted Kane Williamson at the top of the standings, with his 917 rating points just one shy of his personal best of 918, achieved in August 2015

Joe Root has risen to the top of the ICC Test batting rankings for the first time since 2015.

The England captain has supplanted Kane Williamson at the top of the standings, with his 917 rating points just one shy of his personal best of 918, achieved six years ago.

Root has struck six Test centuries in 2021 - no England batsman has managed more in a calendar year - and he still has as many as 10 innings to put together a seventh.

ICC TEST BATTING RANKINGS

1 - Joe Root 

2 - Kane Williamson

3 - Steve Smith

4 - Marnus Labuschagne

5 - Rohit Sharma

The 30-year-old rises from fifth in the previous rankings release, and ends the domination of the chart by Williamson, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, who between them have held top spot since Root last occupied the position in December 2015.

"It's a nice thing to hear. I've been focused on trying to score runs and get us across the line in this series. As nice as it is, there's still so much hard work to do and the focus doesn't change: it's all about trying to get better, continuing to score runs and hopefull setting us up to win Test matches," Root said.

"It's obviously nice, it's not a main focus as a goal of what I'm trying to do. It would be nice to stay there now and continue to play the way I am."

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