It comes as a surprise that, Steve Smith, even without playing a match since his ban from international cricket tops the ICC world test rankings. Steve Smith was banned from playing international cricket for his involvement in ball tempering in a series against South Africa. Steve Smith was first removed as the captain of the team and then was handed a one year ban. Tim Paine took over him and is now currently skipping the Australian Test and ODI team. 

Indian captain, Virat Kohli, had recently topped the test rankings when he scored a couple hundred runs in the first match of the test series against England. However, he was demoted again in the very next match where he only managed 40 runs in both innings. 

ICC ranks a player from points 0 to 1000. The points are given to a batsman according to the average he/she has in a format. The points increase if a batter performs better and decrease if a batter doesn't perform well. 

Virat Kohli left behind top ranked Steve Smith when he scored 200 runs in the first test. His points were reciprocated by his performance and he topped the batting charts. His performance deterred in the second match as he scored only 40 runs in the second match. This in turn resulted in a decrease in his points. He is now again ranked no. 2 and has lost his spot to Steve Smith. 

Steve Smith, on the other side, was banned from international cricket in March and hasn't played a match ever since. Since his performance hasn't improved or worsened, his points thus stay as they were at the time of his ban, and that's the reason why he is still ranked the no.1 batsman in the world. 

Apart from Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, Joe Root is ranked at no. 3 in tests while Jonny Bairstow has entered the top ten by scoring a very fine 93 runs inning. New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson, is ranked at no. 4.

James Anderson on the other hand retains his top position in the test rankings for bowlers. He's followed by South Africa's Kagiso Rabada and India's Ravindra Jadega who are ranked at no. 2 and no. 3 respectively. South Africa's seamer Vernon Philander is ranked at no. 4.

England's Chris Woakes has taken a huge jump and has entered into the top 10 rankings for all rounders. He is currently ranked at no. 7. 

In the ICC test team rankings, India is ranked at no. 1, South Africa at 2, while Australia is ranked at no. 3.

England are ranked at no. 5 and let's see where they end up upon the completion of the test series against India as they seem to dominate India completely.