The month of November saw India and Australia bag dominant wins over Asian opponents.
It was the performance that one would expect from two in-form teams against two teams in transition.
The symmetry in the both series wins were uncanny. The home teams batted only in two innings in two games, one of the games in the series was a day-night fixture and the whitewash was achieved without breaking a sweat.
At the end of November, apart from his team taking a runaway lead in the ICC World Test championship table, Virat Kohli also leapfrogged Steve Smith in the ICC Rankings to claim the No.1 position.
Virat Kohli scored a duck and a century in the series against Bangladesh while Steve Smith could manage only 40 runs against Pakistan. This meant that the one-point lead he held over the Indian captain slipped away and now Kohli is five points ahead of Steve Smith.
David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne broke into the top 10 of the ICC rankings for Test batsmen after their stellar performances in November. Warner, who recorded the second highest individual score for Australia in Test cricket, gained 12 places to reach the fifth spot in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Labuschagne, who is currently the highest run-getter in Tests for this calendar year and was remarkably ranked 110 at the start of 2019, is currently the eighth best batsman in the world.
1⃣1⃣0⃣ ➡️ 8⃣
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) December 5, 2019
The top run-getter in Tests this year has had a HUGE jump in the rankingshttps://t.co/g1tQv7vJHn pic.twitter.com/E9TpEQWbmQ
England skipper Joe Root also broke into the top ten by virtue of his magnificent double century against New Zealand this week.
Top 10 Test Batsmen:
1. Virat Kohli 928 points
2. Steve Smith 923
3. Kane Williamson 877
4. Cheteshwar Pujara 791
5. David Warner 764
6. Ajinkya Rahane 759
7. Joe Root 752
8. Marnus Labuschagne 731
9. Henry Nicholls 726
10. Dimuth Karunaratne 723
Pat Cummins who recently became the first bowler to pick up 50 Test wickets in 2019, holds on to the top spot among the bowlers.
Most wickets in 2019 (Test):-
— ICC Live Cricket (@ICC2_Live) December 1, 2019
50 Pat Cummins (18 inngs)*
38 Stuart Broad (18 inngs)
33 Mohammed Shami (16 inngs)
30 Mitchell Starc (10 inngs)
30 Nathan Lyon (18 inngs)
29 Josh Hazlewood (12 inngs)#AUSvsPAK #PAKvsAUS #PAKvAUS
Despite a fifer in the final Test against England, Neil Wagner dropped from third to fourth in the rankings as Jason Holder overtook him with a match-winning five-wicket haul against Afghanistan at Lucknow.
Ravichandran Ashwin is the lone spinner in the Top 10 and his colleague Ravindra Jadeja is the only other spinner in the Top 20.
Top 10 Test Bowlers:
1. Pat Cummins 900
2. Kagiso Rabada 839
3. Jason Holder 830
4. Neil Wagner 814
5. Jasprit Bumrah 794
6. Vernon Philander 783
7. James Anderson 782
8. Jos Hazlewood 776
9. Ravichanran Ashwin 772
10. Mohammad Shami 771
