Jonny Bairstow and Rishabh Pant, the standout batting stars of the Edgbaston Test, have burst into the top ten of the ICC men's Test player rankings - Bairstow at tenth place and Pant at a career-best No. 5. The unbeaten century in the second innings didn't hurt Joe Root's cause either, as he consolidated his position at the top of the table, that too with 923 rating points, his best.
Bairstow was the Player of the Match following innings of 106 and 114 not out in England's seven-wicket win, which helped them square the five-match Test series 2-2. That made it four centuries in his last three Tests for him, and he moved up 11 places to No. 10. He has 1218 runs at an average of 55.36 with six centuries in the current World Test Championship cycle.
With Bairstow moving up, Virat Kohli, who only managed scores of 11 and 20 at Edgbaston, fell four spots to No. 13. This is the first time since 2016 that Kohli has not featured in the top ten in Test cricket. As for Bairstow, it was a continuation of his stunning rise in recent weeks. Prior to the New Zealand Test series in June, he was ranked 47th. Now, he is back in the top ten for the first time since 2018.
Root, who collaborated with Bairstow in an unbroken 269-run stand that took England over the line against India and scored an unbeaten 142 himself - to go with 31 in the first innings - stretched his lead at the top of the table to 44 ratings points over second-placed Marnus Labuschagne. Root is now also among the top 20 highest-rated batters in Test history, at No. 19.
Steven Smith and Babar Azam were at three and four respectively, with Pant at five. Pant was the main performer with the bat for India in the Test, hitting 146 in the first innings and 57 in the second. That took him up six places from No. 11.
Two bowlers who gained in the latest rankings update were James Anderson and Nathan Lyon. Anderson picked up six wickets at Edgbaston, including 5 for 60 in the first innings, to move up one spot to sixth among Test bowlers. And Lyon, who picked up nine wickets in the first Test in Sri Lanka, has risen five spots to 13th.
There was also a new top-tenner in the men's T20I bowling rankings: Akeal Hosein. Hosein has returned 1 for 22 and 1 for 27 in the two T20Is at home against Bangladesh so far - the first ended in a no-result because of the weather and West Indies won the second by 35 runs. That has given him a jump of ten spots, and a joint-eighth position with Maheesh Theekshana.
Papua New Guinea's Norman Vanua's impressive all-round showing in the T20I series in Singapore, meanwhile, has put him in the top ten among allrounders in the format. He hit 20 and picked up 2 for 30 in the first game, and scored 71 and returned 1 for 33 in the second, moving ten places to No. 9 as a result.