Indian Captain Rohit Sharma has moved to third spot in the latest ICC ODI rankings for batters after delivering a Player Of The Match performance in the final of the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy. The right-hander played a crucial inning of 76 runs, which laid the platform for the team’s win in a tricky run chase of 252 runs against New Zealand in Dubai. Rohit Sharma overtook former Indian captain Virat Kohli and South African wicketkeeper batter Heinrich Klaasen to attain the number three rankings, with Shubman Gill retaining his top spot, followed by former Pakistani captain Babar Azam, who is placed at number two.
The Batters
If we talk about Rohit, the Indian captain has been in decent form in ODI cricket, having scored a century in the ODI series against England which preceded the Champions Trophy and was followed by a match-winning half century in the final of the eight team tournament. As far as the ranking of Virat Kohli is concerned, India’s number three moved one spot down to number five in the latest ODI ranking for batters. Shreyas Iyer, who was India’s highest run-getter in the Champions Tropy with 243 runs in five matches, claims the eighth spot with Player of the Tournament New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra also made a significant jump of 14 spots to be at number 14 in the rankings. Middle-order batter Daryl Mitchell was also rewarded for his match-winning performances in the tournament by moving a place up to number six, while Glenn Phillips also made ground by moving to the 24th spot, which makes it an improvement of six spots from his previous ranking.
The Bowlers
Kuldeep Yadav made a significant impact by moving to number three in the ODI rankings for bowlers following his match winning performance in the final against New Zealand as the chinaman bowler picked up crucial wickets of Rachin Ravindra and former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson to break the back of New Zealnd’s batting. Ravindra Jadeja, who was a part of India’s spin bowling quartet, made his way back into the top ten ranking by claiming the 10th spot. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner was the biggest beneficiary as far as the latest Rankings are concerned as the left-arm spinner moved to second spot courtesy of his performance in the Champions Trophy. Santner picked up 9 wickets in five matches and is now just behind Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana, who takes the top spot.
The All-Rounders
If we talk about the ICC ODI rankings for all-rounders, Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai sits pretty on top of the chart but is facing tough competition from the trio of Mitchell Santner, who moved one place to number four, Michael Bracewell, who attains the seventh spot, and Rachin Ravindra, who climbed to number eight