Australia have backed Marnus Labuschagne to respond with a century after his rare double-failure at Edgbaston, which has cost him top spot in the ICC rankings.
Labuschagne on Wednesday lost his crown as the world's best Test batsman, with Joe Root overtaking the Queenslander back into the No.1 spot.
Australia's historic stranglehold on the top three positions in the rankings has also lasted only one Test, after Steve Smith and Travis Head also dropped spots.
Labuschagne's scores of zero and 13 have moved him down from first to third, while Smith has taken the biggest drop from second to sixth.
Travis Head has too been demoted from third to fourth, after making scores of 50 and 16 in the thrilling two-wicket win.
Labuschagne's displacement comes after he held onto the No.1 ranking for the past six months, after a long stint at the top prior to that as well.
But Root's first-innings 118 not out has catapulted him up the rankings from sixth, and left him as the key man for Australia to dismiss in this series.
The news comes after Labuschagne and Smith endured their worst Test match together, with the batting maestros managing 35 runs between them.
Labuschagne in particular was beaten by Stuart Broad's outswinger, drawn into pushing at the right-armer twice before edging behind.
But Australia can see positives in the situation.
The fact they were able to secure a win without their two best batsmen scoring runs leaves them confident they have the depth to pile on big scores through the series.
"I genuinely just expect him to score a hundred next game," Usman Khawaja said of Queensland teammate Labuschagne.
"We had potentially our two best batsmen not score runs this game, it's very unlikely, doesn't happen very often.
"In my opinion, the greatest batsman of my era in Test cricket, Steve Smith, not very often he misses out twice.
"We've still got four Ashes Tests. Might be a good thing for us, they have some runs in the bank."
ICC RANKINGS:
1. Joe Root (ENG)
2. Kane Williamson (NZL)
3. Marnus Labuschagne (AUS)
4. Travis Head (AUS)
5. Babar Azam (PAK)
6. Steve Smith (AUS)
7. Usman Khawaja (AUS)
8. Daryl Mitchell (NZL)
9. Dimuth Karunaratne (SRI)
10. Rishabh Pant (IND)
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June 21, 2023 at 04:01PM
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Labuschagne loses top spot in ICC batting rankings - Yahoo Sport Australia
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