The 2023-25 World Test Championship will be led by star performers

The ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 has completed an important chapter in its journey with the conclusion of the second Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Chattogram.

The third edition of the WTC has already produced some tight contests and unexpected results, from the West Indies' heist at The Gabba to India’s brilliant fightback at home against Ben Stokes’ England.

Currently, Rohit Sharma's India is leading the WTC table with a point percentage of 68.51. Australia and New Zealand are in second and third place, respectively.

In this edition of the World Test Championship, we examine the leaders in various key statistical categories as of June.

Highest number of runs

Yashasvi Jaiswal, India's rising star, leads the runs charts in this cycle of the WTC with 1028 runs at an average of 68.53. He scored the majority of his runs in the five-game Test series against England, where he scored an impressive 712 runs.

In second place for the ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Year 2023 is Usman Khawaja with 943 runs.

Zak Crawley from England (887 runs) has also performed well in this iteration of the WTC and currently holds third place.

The most wickets

Australia, the reigning World Test Championship winners, lead the way in terms of the highest wicket-takers in this ongoing cycle of Test action.

Pacer Josh Hazlewood has taken more than 50 wickets so far, with his best figures being 9/79 in a match-winning performance against the West Indies in Adelaide earlier this year.

Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, fellow Australian fast bowlers, are tied at 48. Nathan Lyon is fourth, and Ravichandran Ashwin of India is fifth.

Top score

Left-handed players dominate the leaderboard for the championship scores. Rachin Ravindra holds the top spot with a score of 240, which secured New Zealand's victory in the opening Test against South Africa in Mount Maunganui.

Jaiswal's impressive consecutive double centuries against England in Vizag and Rajkot rank second and third on this list. Meanwhile, Saud Shakeel and Abdullah Shafique of Pakistan hold the fourth and fifth positions respectively, thanks to their impressive performances against Sri Lanka in July 2023.

The best figures in a single innings

Tom Hartley's impressive 7/62 helped England secure a victory against India in Hyderabad, making it the best bowling performance to date. Matt Henry's 7/67 and Shamar Joseph's 7/68 are the second and third-best performances, respectively. Both of these were achieved against Australia.

Although Australia managed to defeat Henry by three wickets, Joseph's rampage in the fourth innings resulted in a rare loss for the Aussies at The Gabba.

Fielder with most catches

Australia’s Steve Smith leads the list with 26 catches from just 23 innings. His Ashes rival, Joe Root, closely follows with 21 catches. Ben Duckett and Agha Salman are in third and fourth place, respectively, while six players are tied for fifth.

Maximum totals

During the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester in July 2023, Zak Crawley's score of 189 helped England reach a total of 592 in just 107.4 overs, which remains the highest total in this edition of the WTC.

In the same month, Pakistan scored 576/5 dec against Sri Lanka at a brisk rate of more than four runs an over, making it the second-highest total this cycle.

In the recently concluded Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the latter posted a total of 531, which was the highest Test innings total without a century, making it the third-highest score of the cycle.