ICC ODI Rankings: Shubman Gill Attains Career Best Position; Babar Azam Remains On Top
New Delhi: Opener Shubman Gill has attained a career-best second position and is the highest-ranked among three Indian players who are now in the top 10 of the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings, the first time this happened since January 2019.
Gill, who had scored 58 and figured in a 121-run opening partnership with captain Rohit Sharma in the Asia Cup match against Pakistan, has moved up one spot while Sharma and Virat Kohli have gained two places each and are sitting in eighth and ninth positions, respectively. Sharma also scored a half-century against Sri Lanka this past week while Kohli advances thanks to his unbeaten 122 against Pakistan.
Sharma, Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan were the three batters in the top 10 in that instance more than four years ago while those three were also in the top six of the batting table back in September 2018.
Pakistan also have three batters in the top 10 less than a month from the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Captain Babar Azam is at the top and enjoys a lead of more than 100 rating points over Gill, while Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman are in fifth and 10 positions, respectively.
The latest weekly update, that also considers performances in three matches of the South Africa-Australia series and two matches of the England-New Zealand series, South Africa’s Temba Bavuma has closed in on a top-10 place after striking three centuries and two half-centuries in his last eight ODIs. He has advanced 21 places to 11th position while his previous best was 25th.
Australia players Davis Warner (up one place to fourth), Travis Head (up six places to 20th) and Marnus Labuschagne (up 24 places to 45th) have made significant progress as has the Indian pair of KL Rahul (up 10 places to 37th) and Ishan Kishan (up two places to 22nd).
Aiden Markram, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Liam Livingstone, Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway are among others to gain in the latest update.
New Zealand’s Trent Boult is up to joint-second place among bowlers while Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa is in the top five of the bowling rankings for the first time after taking four wickets in the second match against South Africa.
India’s left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav has gained five places to reach seventh position after grabbing nine wickets in two Asia Cup matches.
Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf has soared eight spots and is in 21st position while India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah (up eight places to 27th) and all-rounder Hardik Pandya (up 21 places to 56th) have also made big gains. Pandya is also up four places to sixth among all-rounders.
South Africa spinners Keshav Maharaj (up 10 places to 25th) and Tabraiz Shamsi (up15 places to 29th) are among others to move up the rankings.