Following his maiden Test ton on English soil, Virat Kohli has notched up another milestone by becoming only the seventh Indian batsman in history to attain the top ICC Test ranking.
In the latest ICC rankings which were released on Sunday, Kohli had leapfrogged banned Australia star Steve Smith to take the No1 spot.
He is the first Indian batsman since the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in 2011 to achieve the top Test ranking for batsmen.
India suffered a 31-run defeat in the opening Test at Edgbaston with Kohli waging almost a lone-battle with the bat in both innings for the visitors.
The India skipper scored 149 in the first innings before following it up with a knock of 51 in the second.
This is the first time Kohli has achieved the No1 ranking in the Test format and it ends Smith’s 32-month reign at the top of the batting charts.
Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Dilip Vengsarkar are the other Indian batsmen apart from Kohli and Tendulkar to have attained the top Test ranking.
In climbing to the top of the rankings, Kohli has also surpassed Gavaskar’s highest-ever tally of 916 rating points. The India skipper now has 934 rating points to his name which is the highest ever achieved by an Indian batsman and 14th highest overall in Test history.
The 29-year-old is already the top-ranked ODI batsman currently.
England skipper Joe Root remains in third spot in the ranking behind Smith who is serving a 12-month ban from international cricket handed to him by Cricket Australia.
In the bowling department, England’s James Anderson continues to top the charts ahead of South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada with India’s Ravichandran Ashwin remaining stationary in fifth place.