(Cricket News) Joe Root has risen to No. 2 in the ICC Test batting rankings, behind Kane Williamson of New Zealand, following a poor run of scores by Steven Smith that saw him dip below 800 points for the first time since it happened in 2014.

The main beneficiary of Smith’s decline in form since replacing David Warner as Australia’s new Test opener—which culminated in scores of 31 and 0 in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington last week—is Root, who himself bounced back with a century against India in Ranchi last month.

After scoring three runs in a single match, Smith’s Australia teammate Marnus Labuschagne—a former No. 1 hitter—leaves the top ten for the first time since December 2019. Meanwhile, Travis Head—who peaked at No. 2 in the Ashes last year—drops to No. 12 after his own twin scores of 1 and 29.

Three Indian hitters have moved up the rankings as a result of Head’s decline. Yashaswi Jaiswal, who has amassed 665 runs and counting in the current series against England, is the first to crack the top ten. Though he has not played in the series, Virat Kohli moves up one spot to No. 8 and Rohit Sharma is one spot behind him at No. 11.

Cameron Green’s match-winning 174 not out in Australia’s opening innings at Wellington has seen him rise to the top of the batting rankings this week. He has moved up 22 spots to 23rd place with a career-high 661 points. With eight hundred and seventy points, Williamson leads Root (799) by a wide margin at the top of the rankings after a brilliant run of seven hundreds in his past eight Test matches.

With two wickets less than his career-best total at Edgbaston last year, before his Ashes series-ending injury, Nathan Lyon has risen two spots to No. 6 in the bowling rankings after his 10-wicket match total against New Zealand.

After hitting 71 and taking 5 for 45 at Wellington, New Zealand’s offspinning all-rounder Glenn Phillips made notable progress in both the batting and bowling departments. Meanwhile, Matt Henry broke into the top 20 for the first time after taking eight wickets in the game.

This week’s rankings were also impacted by Ireland’s historic Test victory over Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi. With eight wickets in the match, Mark Adair has climbed 30 places to the 69th spot in the bowling charts. In the batting rankings, Andy McBrine, Paul Stirling, Curtis Campher, and Andy Balbirnie have all moved up into the top 100.

Naveed Zadran rose 32 spots to rank 79th among bowlers, while Hashmatullah Shahidi gained five spots to rank 81st among batsmen.

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