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England’s Harry Brook was crowned the new No. 1 batsman in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, updated on December 11. Brook, 25, replaced his teammate Joe Root at the top of the batting order to become numero uno for the first time in his career in men’s Test batting.

Harry Brook also imitated Sachin Tendulkar with 898 rating points – the 34th highest rating of all time for Test batters. The young batting star is just a point ahead of Joe Root after the first two Tests of their three-match series in New Zealand.

Joe Root, who has topped the rankings nine times in his career, relinquished top spot for the first time since overtaking Kane Williamson in July 2024.

Also read: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are out of the top 20

Harry Brook has been rewarded for his consistent performances in Test cricket. The young batsman has scored 2280 runs in 23 Tests at a staggering average of 61.62 and eight hundreds.

Brook has amassed 1099 runs, including four hundreds, in 11 Tests in 2024. In the ongoing New Zealand series, Brook started with 171 in Christchurch and then transferred the form to Wellington, where he scored 123 and 55. Root, on the other hand, has a hundred from four innings in the New Zealand series.

The two batters will battle for the No. 1 spot at the end of the year when England take on New Zealand in the third and final Test of the series in Hamilton on December 14.

Australian star Travis Head (up six places to fifth) and South African captain Temba Bavuma (up three places to seventh) move into the top 10 for Test batters after strong contributions with the bat for their respective countries, while former number 1 ranked hitter Marnus Labuschagne improves three places and moves to 13th.

Head ripped into the Indian bowling attack in Australia’s 10-wicket victory in the Adelaide Test. He hit 140 off just 141 balls, taking the game away from the Indians in the first innings.

ICC TEST RANKINGS – TOP 10 FROM DECEMBER 12

Meanwhile, Indian batting stars saw a dip in their rankings after the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India lost to Australia by 10 wickets in the pink-ball Test, days after winning the series opener in Perth.

Captain Rohit Sharma slipped out of the top 30 and dropped five places after his double failure in the pink-ball Test. Virat Kohli dropped six places to number 20, while Rishabh Pant dropped three places to number 9. Yashasvi Jaiswal is the only Indian in the top 5 as the left-hander retained his number 4 spot in the latest batting charts.