In the latest update to the ICC Test rankings, India batter Virat Kohli continued to slide, this time to a 12-year low while Australia seamer Scott Boland had a dramatic rise to a career high.
Since the last update to the rankings, three New Year's Tests have taken place – Australia v India in Sydney, South Africa v Pakistan in Cape Town and Zimbabwe v Afghanistan in Bulawayo.
The most high-profile match of the three was the one at the SCG, which Australia won to beat India 3-1 in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy to lift it for the first time since 2014-15.
India star Virat Kohli made 17 & 6 in Sydney, bringing the curtain down on another disappointing series. These performances have caused him to continue his descent down the rankings – Kohli is now ranked 27th in the world, his lowest since December 2012 (36th) when he was barely a year old in Test cricket. That was also the last time Kohli was placed outside the top 25 Test batters in the world.
One player who saw a sharp rise in the rankings was Australian pacer Scott Boland, who tormented Kohli Down Under, dismissing him four times in the series including twice in Sydney. Boland jumped a massive 222 rating points, and 29 places to move into joint-9th among bowlers – a career-high. Boland's previous peak came when he was ranked 36th in the world in June 2023.
