Ranking Top 10 current Test batsmen irrespective of ICC Rankings

The ICC World Test Championship has begun with The Ashes on 1st August. Each team will play three home series and three away series. The final between the top two teams will take place at The Lord’s in 2021. The winner will share the title if the final ends in a draw.

Test cricket is into an interesting phase in the last couple of years. Wickets have never fallen so often in this century as it did in the past 24 months. Once again like the good old days, bowlers are having an upper hand on the batsmen. There are no more flat pitches; it is either a fast and bouncy green top or a dry rank turner. The number of dull draws has decreased and the idea of four-day Test matches seems plausible. The batters have to grind harder now, perhaps only the skilled and resilient will shine out.

Steve Smith took the world by a storm with his herculean effort in the three Ashes innings and quickly moved to the second spot. At the moment Virat Kohli sits at top of the ICC rankings, but for how long for Smith to topple him? Sri Lanka’s Karunaratne and New Zealand’s Henry Nicholls are making big strides in Test cricket as well.

In the latest ICC Test rankings for the batsmen, Steve Smith has jumped to the second spot ahead of Williamson. Indian captain Virat Kohli is just 9 points ahead of Smith. The ICC rankings take account of variable factors; ratings of opposition bowling, runs scored compared to the team score, out or not out and whether if the innings came in a win or a loss.

Here we rank players based on their current form and irrespective of ICC rankings

10. Ross Taylor

Ross Taylor has been under shadowed by McCullum first, then by Guptill and Williamson; like most of the middle-order players are by the top order. Taylor made his debut in 2007 and has scored over 6000 runs at an average of 46, which by all means is above average. He was a tad inconsistent at the start of his career but has been New Zealand’s mainstay from 2012.

Taylor averaged 54 and 72 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. He scored 6 hundreds and 6 fifties in that period.  Taylor had an eye operation and his form dipped in 2015. But his return in 2016 saw a new and even an advanced version of him; Taylor 2.0. In 2016 he averaged 60. The next year he achieved greater heights, as he scored 408 in 5 matches at an astronomical average of 81!

The 35-year-old continues his rich vein of form in 2019. He scored his career’s third double century against Bangladesh earlier in the year. Taylor is into the last stages of his international cricket, and it would be a massive gap to fill for the Blackcaps.