XtraTime Web Desk: India captain Virat Kohli has retained the top position among batsmen after scoring five half-centuries in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 but opener Rohit Sharma has bridged the gap in the latest update to the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s 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 have seen him gain one point and reach 891 points while Rohit has 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 have been many 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 have seen him rise four places and back into the top-10 at eighth place while Australia’s Usman Khawaja has risen to a career-high 15th place. England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow have both 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 has come in for a lot of praise from captain Faf du Plessis, have also achieved career-best rankings of 34 and 30, after gains of 54 and 32 places, respectively.
In other movements among batsmen, Sri Lanka’s Avishka Fernando has risen a whopping 110 places to 85th place, West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran has risen to 92nd from outside the top 400, while Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has reached a career-best batting points tally of 692.
India’s new-ball bowler Jasprit Bumrah has 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 into the tournament 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 MRF Tyres ICC 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.