Brook's ascends to No. 2 in Test batting rankings, closes hole with table-clincher Root

Harry Brook's 171 in the first innings of England's win over New Zealand in Christchurch has taken him up two spots to No. 2 on the ICC Test batters' table, and with No. 1 Joe Root scoring 0 and 23 not out in the same game, the gap between the two has come down to just 41 rating points. With Stream arising as Root's nearest challenger, and the Australia versus India Line Gavaskar Prize series enjoying some time off between Tests one and two, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had ascended to No. 2 after his 161 in India's Perth Test win, has dropped to No. 4, Creek's prior position. Kane Williamson stays in third spot in the wake of scoring 93 and 61 in Christchurch. Over in Durban, South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 233 runs in the main Test - subsequent to bowling them out for 42 in the principal innings - and the legends of that success have made gains inside the best ten. Temba Bavuma scored 70 and 113 in that Test, and that gave him a 14-spot support and a spot in the main ten at No. 10. Marco Jansen was the Player of the Match in Durban for his profits of 7 for 13 and 4 for 73, and that made him climb 19 situations on the bowlers' table to 10th, and furthermore took him up to second put - behind Ravindra Jadeja - on the allrounders' table. For South Africa, Tristan Stubbs, who scored 122 in the second innings against Sri Lanka, likewise rose 29 spots to No. 42 among hitters. It wasn't all terrible for Sri Lanka, with Kamindu Mendis climbing two spots among hitters regardless of an unfortunate show in Durban. He scored 13 in the principal innings (the main Sri Lanka hitter to get into twofold digits) and 10 in the second, yet it was still enough for him to hop past Steven Smith and Saud Shakeel to seventh spot. Dinesh Chandimal, in the mean time, rose two spots to seventeenth because of his second-innings 83.