The International Cricket Council (ICC) has published the new ranking of the batters and bowlers in the One-day international games, as the white-ball captain of the Pakistan cricket team holds its top position with 824 ratings, despite not being part of any recent series in this format of the game.
The Indian team is busy facing Sri Lanka in the ongoing three-match ODI series. The captain of the Blue Brigade, Rohit Sharma, batted brilliantly in the first couple of games at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and has been rewarded for his good recent performances.
The opening batter is the leading run-getter of the opening two games, notching up 122 runs at an average of 61 and a strike rate of over 134, besides celebrating a couple of half-centuries, both of which came in the first ten overs of the game.
The Nagur-born gained a place in the ICC rankings for the ODI batters to reach third place in the latest update on Wednesday. He improved his overall rating to 763 points, being 61 ratings away from Babar in a race to be the number one in the world for ODI batters.
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“One of the all-time greats, one of the best to have ever played. Will walk into any white-ball team they pick, irrespective of the era.” The former Indian coach Ravi Shastri expressed to the ICC media.
His opening partner, Shubman Gill, had started in both games to hold his second position with 782 rating points, while the former captain of the national side, Virat Kohli, dropps down to fourth place with 752 rating points. The Delhi batter faced rare consecutive failures in the first two games of the series.
The opening batter of Pathum Nissanka impressed with his knock in the first game of the series but had to return to the dressing room after the very first ball of the innings after he edged the outswinger from Mohammad Siraj in the hands of the wicket-keeper KL Rahul. As a result, Nissanka drops to ninth position with 705 rating points.
Three Indians in the top 10 of ICC ODI bowler’s rankings
When it comes to the bowling department, the chinaman of the Indian team Kuldeep Yadav, raised five spots in the ICC bowlers rankings to be placed in the fourth position, with 662 rating points. The left-arm wrist spinner picked up three wickets in the first two games but went economical.
The left-arm spinner of the South Africa team, Keshav Maharaj, retains his top position, while the two Australians- pacer Josh Hazlewood and leg-spinner Adam Zampa- remain at the second and third positions respectively.
Mohammad Siraj showed his skills with the new ball in the first two games to hold his joint fourth rank as the premier pacer across formats of the current era, Jasprit Bumrah, drops down to the eighth position after being rested for the whole trip in Sri Lanka.
Young Sri Lanka spinner Dunith Wellalage has been rewarded for efforts with a five-spot gain to rise to the 76th spot, while Azar Patel improves 37 places to jump to the 96th rank in the ICC bowler’s rankings.
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The leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay ended with 6/33 in the second ODI, the fourth-best bowling figure for his country’s bowler against India in Men’s ODIs. He rockets up 64 positions to stay on the brink of entering the 100 position.
India’s next series will be in red-ball format, as they are set to host Bangladesh for a two-match series. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is flying to England at the end of this month to feature in a three-match Test series.