Kohli rises to second position in ODI rankings

Dubai, Aug.5 : India’s Virat Kohli has achieved a career-best ranking in the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen which were released a day after the conclusion of India-Sri Lanka series.

Kohli, who entered the series as the third-ranked ODI batsman, has moved up one position to second following his player of the series performance in which he scored 296 runs.

The former India U-19 captain, who led his side to victory in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2008 in Malaysia, also achieved a career-best rating of 866 after the fourth ODI in which he scored 128 not out in India’s six wicket victory.

Kohli now trails South Africa’s Hashmi Amla by 13 ratings points and can potentially top the batting chart if the South Africa opener fails to perform in the five-ODI series against England starting 24 August in Cardiff.

Kohli’s team-mate and opener Gautam Gambhir has also broken into the top 10 which means India now has three batsmen inside the top 10 with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni sitting in fifth position.

Gambhir scored 258 runs in the series and has been rewarded with a jump of seven places, which has put him in 10th position.

Other India batsmen to move up the order include Virender Sehwag in 26th (up by one) and Suresh Raina in 30th (up by two), while Rohit Sharma has slipped eight places to 54th.

For Sri Lanka, Upul Tharanga in 40th (up by four) and Lahiru Thirimanne in 86th (up by seven) are the only batsmen to move up the ladder.

Tillakaratne Dilshan in 15th (down by six), Mahela Jayawardena in 22nd (down by three), Dinesh Chandimal in 32nd (down by 10) and Angelo Mathews in 39th (down by three) are some of the Sri Lanka batsmen to drop down in the latest rankings.

There is no movement in the top 20 of the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, currently led by South Africa’s Lonwabo Tsotsobe with Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez in second place.

Meanwhile, Mathews is now sixth (up by two) and Perera is 24th (up by 13) on the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders. The all-rounders’ list is still topped by Bangladesh’s Shakib al Hasan.

In the Reliance ICC ODI Championship table, India’s 4-1 victory has seen it move up the ranking. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men now sit in second place when ratings points are calculated to within the decimal point, despite being on equal points with Australia.

The annual Reliance ICC ODI Championship update will now take place. The exact table after the annual update will be confirmed on 8 August.

The annual update of the Reliance ICC ODI Championship table is carried out so that the list continues to reflect recent form with older results being discarded.

After the annual update, the table will reflect all completed ODI series since August 2010. All ODI series to be played until 1 August 2013 will, therefore, be added to this table, so by then the ratings will be based on four years of results.

Reliance ICC ODI Championship (on 5 August at conclusion of Sri Lanka-India ODI series)

Team rankings: 1.      Australia                      119

2.      India                             119

3.      South Africa                 118

4.      England                       118

5.      Sri Lanka                    110

6.      Pakistan                       103

7.      West Indies                 88

8.      New Zealand               82

9.      Bangladesh                 67

10.  Zimbabwe                   46

11.  Ireland                         36

12.  Netherlands                 15

13.  Kenya                          08