Moitrish Majumdar, Kolkata:
Australian batsman Steve Smith, who scored a century in both innings of the first Test of the Ashes series against England, surpassed India's Cheteshwar Pujara to the third position in the latest ICC rankings released on Tuesday.
Indian captain Virat Kohli occupies the first place in the rankings, while Pujara slipped to fourth position. Smith, playing his first Test match after facing a one-year ban in ball tampering, scored innings of 144 and 142 and was named Man of the Match.
Smith had 857 rating points before this Test match and after the match he is the third player in the current ranking to get more than 900 rating points. Apart from Kohli (922) and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (913), Smith (903) has over 900 rating points.
Australia's Nathan Lyon, who took nine wickets in a Test match, climbed six places to 13th position. Fast bowler Pat Cummins has strengthened his position at the top by taking seven wickets in the match. He has reached a career-best 898 points. He has become the third highest bowler in Australia in the last 50 years after Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
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