England’s Natalie Sciver-Brunt became the new no.1 ranked batter in the latest update of the ICC Women’s ODI players rankings on July 25, 2023. This came after her brilliant performance in the recently contested Women’s Ashes series against Australia.
The majority of the Ashes series against Australia saw Sciver-Brunt at her breathtaking best, but the right-hander may have kept some of her best work for the ODI portion of the multi-format series, in which she amassed 271 runs at an average of 135.50.
Her performances helped her overtake Beth Mooney of Australia and become the new No.1 ranked ODI batter in the world, with the 30-year-old achieving a career-high rating of 803 rating points.
Australia captain Meg Lanning (878 rating points) is the only other current women’s player to have held a higher batting rating, with Sciver-Brunt now a recipient of the premier ranking position in ODI cricket for both batters and all-rounders.
At second place comes Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, while Mooney slips to third place. Heather Knight rises two places to 12th, Danni Wyatt jumps three spots to 18th, while Ash Gardner climbs to 21st on the batter rankings, three spots on the bowler rankings to claim fifth place, and two spots on the all-rounder rankings to go to third.
Fargana Hoque And Nahida Akter From Bangladesh Create History
In the aftermath of the India-Bangladesh ODI series, experienced batter Fargana Hoque and bowler Nahida Akter created history with their performances. Hoque became the first player from her country to score an ODI century during the enthralling series.
This helped her ump 11 places to 19th overall and rise to a career-high rating of 565 rating points. Hoque is now the first Bangladeshi women’s batter to hold a place inside the top 20 of the ODI batter rankings, surpassing the previous best achieved by Rumana Ahmed in February 2017 when the right-hander was ranked 25th.
Spinner Nahida Akter jumped five spots to 19th which is the highest ranked any Bangladesh woman has been on this list after Salma Khatun reached 20th in the bowling rankings.