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Steve Smith celebrates after hitting a century. (AP image)
The Australia captain’s innings of 239 has seen him reach a tally of 945 points to take joint second position in the all-time list along with England's Len Hutton. Smith had reached 941 points after the first Test in Adelaide before dropping briefly to 938 after the Brisbane Test.
Smith, who has gained seven points after his Perth performance to overtake Peter May, Ricky Ponting and Jack Hobbs, and is within 16 points of Bradman’s tally of 961 points. His batting average of 62.32 is second only to Bradman in terms of batsmen with at least 20 Test innings and by the time the fourth Test of the series starts on Boxing Day, he would have been number one for two years.
Smith is already ahead of Bradman with regards to the number of Tests at the top. He has now been number one for 114 Tests, which is the fifth-most in a list led by Gary Sobers (189 Tests) and with Viv Richards (179), Lara (140) and Tendulkar (139).
Batsmen to reach career-best rankings after the Perth Test include Dawid Malan of England (up 47 places to a career-best 52nd), after his innings of 140 and 54 in Perth and Mitchell Marsh of Australia (up 44 places to 65th) after his score of 181. Jonny Bairstow (up one place to 15th) and Usman Khawaja (up two places to 19th) are the other batsmen to have moved up.
In the bowlers’ list led by England’s new-ball bowler James Anderson, Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood has gained one slot to move into the top five after finishing with eight wickets in the match. Pat Cummins of Australia (up four places to a career-best 39th) and Craig Overton of England (up seven places to 89th) have also gained in the latest rankings.
ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 19 December, after the third Test between Australia and England in Perth:
Batsmen (top 10)
Rank Player Rating Points
1) Steve Smith (Aus) 945
2) Virat Kohli (Ind) 893
3) C. Pujara (Ind) 873
4) K. Williamson(NZ) 855
5) Joe Root (Eng) 852
6) David Warner (Aus) 801
7) Hashim Amla (SA) 795
8) Azhar Ali (Pak) 755
9) D. Chandimal (SL) 743
10) Ross Taylor (NZ) 739
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First Published: December 19, 2017, 1:34 PM IST