Rohit reaches career-best 17th in ICC Test Player Rankings after Visakhapatnam heroics
Dubai: India batsman Rohit Sharma, who became the first player to score a century in each innings of his maiden Test as opener, on Monday jumped to a career-best 17th position in the ICC Test Player Rankings.
Rohit, who now has five centuries from 28 Tests, gained a whopping 36 slots after his knocks of 176 and 127 in the first Test against South Africa in Visakhapatnam helped India win by 203 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The other opener Mayank Agarwal has also attained a career-best 25th position after his first innings double-century lifted him 38 places.
Captain Virat Kohli, who retained his second spot, has dropped below the 900-point mark for the first time since January 2018. He is now on 899 points, 38 behind top-ranked Steve Smith of Australia.
Among the bowlers, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback to the top 10 after his match haul of eight wickets, which included figures of seven for 145 in the first innings.
The formerly top-ranked bowler has moved up four places from 14th position and also into the top five among all-rounders.
Fast bowler Mohammad Shami has reached a career-best 710 points that took him from 18th to 16th, two below his career-best 14th rank, while Ravindra Jadeja has leap-frogged Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan to take second position among all-rounders.
For South Africa, centurions Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar have progressed. De Kock is back into the top 10 after gaining four places and moving to seventh while Elgar has moved five places and is in 14th position.
India have gained 40 points in the ICC World Test Championship table after the win at Visakhapatnam and are now on 160 points after having won a full 120 points for a 2-0 series win in the West Indies.
New Zealand and Sri Lanka are on 60 points each after their 1-1 series draw while Australia and England are on 56 each with their 2-2 series draw in a five-match series.
The points in the WTC are evenly distributed over the number of matches in a series (two to five), which were decided by the member countries as per their bilateral agreements.
Thus, the points can vary from 60 for each match of a two-Test series to 24 for each match of a five-Test series.
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Integrity of electoral process severely compromised, Cong to soon launch movement: CWC
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress Working Committee met here on Friday and adopted a resolution alleging the integrity of the entire electoral process was being severely compromised against which the party would soon launch a movement.
In the resolution of the top body of the Congress, the party said free and fair elections is a Constitutional mandate that was being called into "serious question by the partisan functioning of the Election Commission".
The CWC, which met amid the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, said the session has been a washout so far because of the Narendra Modi government's "stubborn refusal" to have an immediate discussion on three pressing national issues -- "the recent revelations regarding corruption by a business group, and the violence in Manipur and Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal".
Asked why the Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolution does not name the business group, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "The answer is the Adani group".
"The CWC believes the integrity of the entire electoral process is being severely compromised. Free and fair elections is a Constitutional mandate that is being called into serious question by the partisan functioning of the Election Commission.
"Increasing sections of society are becoming frustrated and deeply apprehensive. The Congress will take these up these public concerns as a national movement," the resolution stated.
Addressing a joint press conference along with Ramesh and Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, party general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal said the party discussed the political situation in the country for four-and-half hours and adopted the resolution.
He said the CWC has decided to constitute internal committees to look into electoral performance and organisational matters.
About the Assembly polls results in Maharashtra, Venugopal said the electoral outcome in the state was "beyond normal understanding and it appears to be a clear case of targeted manipulation".
