Joe Root Rises to Top the ICC Test Cricket Batting Rankings for the Ninth Time

Former England Captain Surpasses Brain Lara Run Tally

Root's strong series against the Caribbean team included a series-high 291 runs in three matches /

By Caroline Chepkorir

England's Joe Root has reclaimed his status as the world's top Test hitter, according to the most recent ICC Men's Test Player Rankings. Root's resurgence followed a remarkable series performance against the West Indies.

He was the only one of the top six to score more than 20, however England did rack up runs down the order, with Jamie Smith nearly reached a century. The rookie wicketkeeper-batsman was also one of the biggest movers in the rankings, rising 31 places to number 64.

Root's strong series against the Caribbean team included a series-high 291 runs in three matches. His greatest performance came in the third and final Test in Birmingham, where he scored 87. This recent accomplishment signified Root's return to the top place, which he had held from August 2015 to last year, which was after a strong performance in the first Ashes match.

Root's progress is the most notable of the latest update, and he achieved an arguably bigger milestone during the Test, which he surpassed Brian Lara's Test match tally of 11,953 to become the format's sixth best run-getter. Root dominated current Test cricketers in runs with 12,207, followed by Steven Smith with 9685 and Virat Kohli with 8848.

Root's latest surge saw Williamson move to second, Pakistan's white-ball captain Babar Azam level with Daryl Mitchell in third, Smith in fifth, and India captain Rohit Sharma in sixth.
The former England captain's recent achievement added to his excellent career statistics. Root's steady performances have cemented his position as one of the world's best Test batsmen.

“I am extremely passionate about county cricket, and it is apparent the schedule needs to change for a host of reasons to see long-lasting benefits for English cricket. County cricket is the breeding ground for some of the best talent in the game, and this requires world-leading structures to allow players to reach their full potential. This is a benefit for everybody in the game. We are trying to find a way to get the standard of first-class cricket as close to the international game as we can. There's a large number of players that don't think the schedule is conducive to high-level performance as it stands right now; we need to find a way of making that gap smaller and the product better," said Root in media reports.