Kohli remains on top but Rohit bridges gap in ODI rankings

London: India captain Virat Kohli retained the top position among batsmen after scoring five half-centuries in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup but opener Rohit Sharma bridged the gap in the latest update to the ODI Player Rankings after a stupendous run in the league stage of the 10-team tournament.

Kohli’s 442 runs at an average of 63.14 saw him gain one point and reach 891 points while Rohit bridged the gap from 51 points to only six after becoming the first batsman to score five centuries in the World Cup. His 885 points going into the semi-finals are a career-high.

There were other notable movements too, with Pakistan’s Babar Azam going up to third place, just behind his career-high second place achieved in June 2018, and Australia opener David Warner re-entering at number six after a highly successful group stage that saw him aggregate 638 runs, just nine less than leading scorer Rohit.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson’s consistent efforts saw him rise four places and back into the top-10 at eighth place while Australia’s Usman Khawaja rose to a career-high 15th place. England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow have risen in the rankings with Roy reaching a career-best 13th place.

Australia’s wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey and South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen, who came in for a lot of praise from captain Faf du Plessis, also achieved career-best respective rankings of 34 and 30, after gains of 54 and 32 places, respectively.

In other movements among batsmen, Sri Lanka’s Avishka Fernando rose a whopping 110 places to 85th place, West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran rose to 92nd from outside the top 400, while Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan reached a career-best batting points tally of 692.

India’s new-ball bowler Jasprit Bumrah extended his lead at the top from 21 points to 56 points after grabbing 17 wickets in the nine league matches at the World Cup, with Boult remaining in second place after a memorable league phase that included a hat-trick against Australia, the first ever in ODI cricket at Lord’s.

Afghanistan spinners Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and Rashid Khan remain in the top-10 despite their team losing all matches, while Australia’s Mitchell Starc and Mohammad Amir have improved despite not coming through the league phase with many impressive performances.

The England pair of Jofra Archer (up 103 places to 42) and Mark Wood (up 10 places to 19), as well as rising Pakistan star Shaheen Afridi (up 34 places to 23rd) are among the others to gain in the latest rankings update.

Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan has retained the top spot among all-rounders, while England’s Ben Stokes has gained nine places to reach second position.

In the ODI Team Rankings, England remain in first position at 123 points but only ahead of India on decimal points, while New Zealand and Australia are similarly both on 112 with the former fractionally ahead, and South Africa fifth on 110 points.

Published on: July 07, 2019 at 18:51 IST

By IANS