Sports: India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is among the major beneficiaries in the latest ICC Test rankings for batters. He had played a valiant 99-run knock in the second innings of the first Test against New Zealand at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru last week. Pant has jumped three places to sixth position in the rankings going past Usman Khawaja, Virat Kohli and Marnus Labuschagne and boasts of 745 rating points.

He is only 12 points behind Steve Smith and has a chance to surpass him with a good show in the second and third Test. Smith, meanwhile, will directly be in action next month in the five-match Test series against India starting November 22. Surprisingly, Virat Kohli has dropped a place and is now at 8th position despite scoring 70 runs in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test.

Kamindu Mendis of Sri Lanka is the newest entrant in the top 10 as New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell dropped out. India skipper Rohit Sharma scored a half-century in the second innings but even then, he slipped two places to 15th in the rankings. Apart from Pant, another player who has immensely improved his rankings is Sarfaraz Khan who scored 150 runs.

He has jumped 31 places to finish on 53rd place in the rankings with 509 rating points, his career-best so far. Rachin Ravindra was the other player who impressed in Bengaluru with a stroke-filled ton and he has taken a massive jump of 36 places. The Kiwi all-rounder is at 18th position in the rankings now with 681 rating points, even his career-best so far.

Former England captain Joe Root has lost 15 rating points after his failures in the second Test but continues to be on top of the latest ICC rankings. Harry Brook has dropped from second to third position with 803 ratings while Yashasvi Jaiswal has remained steady at fourth.