India captain Virat Kohli and senior batsman Cheteshwar Pujara held their second and sixth positions respectively on the batsmen's list while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin slipped a notch to be at sixth among bowlers in the latest ICC Test rankings.
Australian speedster Mitchell Starc reached a career-best fifth position among bowlers after his 'Player-of-the-match' performance in the Durban Test against South Africa helped his side win by 118 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
The 28-year-old Starc finished with a match haul of nine for 109, enabling him to overtake South Africa's new-ball bowlers Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander among others, eclipsing his previous best sixth position that he enjoyed in December 2016.
Other Australia players to have gained in the latest rankings update include the Marsh brothers. Shaun Marsh has reached a career-best 16th position while his brother Mitchell has moved up to 43rd place.Mitchell has also gained one slot to reach 58th slot among bowlers.
For South Africa, Aiden Markram's scores of 32 and 143 have helped him gain 28 slots to reach a career-best 19th place.