Players aim for upward movements in England-Australia ODI series

Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, one of the stars of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, will begin as the highest-ranked batsman in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen in ninth position but there are as many as six batsmen occupying positions from 11th to 33rd who will be aiming to finish higher by the time the series concludes at Old Trafford on 13 September.

Australia’s George Bailey is 11th, followed by his captain Steven Smith (14th), Jos Buttler (17th), David Warner (22nd), Shane Watson (23rd) and England captain Eoin Morgan (33rd). With 80 points separating Bailey from Morgan, strong performances in what is expected to be another keenly-contested series will help these batsmen finish in higher positions.

Maxwell himself will be aiming to make gains and can potentially finish ahead of New Zealand’s seventh-ranked Ross Taylor whom he trails by 25 points.

South Africa holds the top two batting positions with captain AB de Villiers leading Test captain Hashim Amla by 73 points.

World’s number-one ranked Mitchell Starc will lead the Australia bowling attack and will be looking to widen the gap with second-ranked Imran Tahir of South Africa. The left-arm fast bowler leads the wrist spinner by 42 points but is 18 points shy of his career-high 783 points, which he had achieved against New Zealand in Auckland during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 fixture.

Steven Finn is England’s highest-ranked bowler in 14th position and will have his eyes on 10th-ranked Ravichandran Ashwin of India who is 27 points ahead. Finn’s team-mate Moeen Ali is the other bowler who features inside the top 50 in 46th position and will be looking to improve his ranking.

Bowlers outside the top 50 and aiming to improve their rankings include Shane Watson (80th), Nathan Coulter-Nile (93rd) and Ben Stokes (94th).

In the ICC Player Rankings for ODI All-rounders, Maxwell is the highest-ranked player from either side in sixth position. The list is headed by Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh.

In the ICC ODI Team Rankings, number-one ranked Australia leads sixth-ranked England by 31 points. Irrespective of how the series ends, Australia will finish in the top spot but England can move ahead of Sri Lanka in fifth position if it wins all the five matches of the series.

The following are the series permutations:

·         If Eng wins 5-0 – Aus 120 (1st), Eng (105 5th)
·         If Aus wins 5-0 – Aus 131 (1st), Eng 96 (6th)
·         If Eng wins 4-1 – Aus 122 (1st), Eng 103 (6th)
·         If Aus wins 4-1 – Aus 129 (1st), Eng 98 (6th)
·         If Eng wins 3-2 – Aus 124 (1st), Eng 101 (6th)
·         If Aus wins 3-2 – Aus 127 (1st), Eng 100 (6th)

Series schedule:

3 Sep – 1st ODI, Rose Bowl (d/n)
5 Sep – 2nd ODI, Lord’s
8 Sep – 3rd ODI, Old Trafford (d/n)
11 Sep – 4rd ODI, Headingley
13 Sep – 5th ODI, Old Trafford

ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 1 Sep, before the start of England-Australia ODI series)

Rank   Team              Points
1.      Australia          129
2.      India                115
3.      South Africa   110
4.      New Zealand  109
5.      Sri Lanka         103
6.      England           98
7.      Bangladesh     96
8.      Pakistan           90
9.      West Indies     88
10.  Ireland             49
11.  Zimbabwe       45
12.  Afghanistan    41

(Developed by David Kendix)

ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 1 Sep, before the start of England-Australia ODI series)

Batsmen

Rank      Player                   Team     Points    Ave         HS Rating
   1       AB de Villiers  SA       884      53.27  902 v NZ at Auckland 2015
   2       Hashim Amla   SA       811      54.30  901 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2012
   3       Virat Kohli       Ind       790      50.66  886 v Ban at Fatullah 2014
   4       K. Williamson  NZ       788      48.02  798 v SA at Centurion 2015
   5       T. Dilshan        SL        781      39.71  802 v Sco at Hobart 2015
   6       S. Dhawan       Ind       765      44.41  794 v SA at Melbourne 2015
   7       Ross Taylor     NZ       728      43.91  743 v Zim at Harare 2015
   8       MS Dhoni        Ind       723      52.24  836 v Aus at Delhi 2009
   9       Glenn Maxwell            Aus      703      34.22  724 v Pak at Adelaide 2015
  10      Joe Root          Eng      697      42.36  712 v NZ at Trent Bridge 2015

Selected (top 50)

Rank      Player                   Team     Points    Ave         HS Rating
  11      George Bailey  Aus      682      41.18  867 v SA at Harare 2014
  14      Steven Smith    Aus      676      40.25  685 v NZ at Melbourne 2015
  17      Jos Buttler        Eng      665      34.02  680 v NZ at Edgbaston 2015
  22      David Warner  Aus      640!    35.51  640 v Ire at Belfast 2015
  23      Shane Watson  Aus      637      40.80  773 v SL at Hambantota 2011
  33      Eoin Morgan    Ire/Eng 602      36.72  690 v Aus at The Oval 2010

Bowlers

Rank   Player             Team   Points  Avge    Eco.     Highest Ranking
   1       Mitchell Starc   Aus      765      18.30  4.73    783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015
   2       Imran Tahir      SA       723      21.67  4.36    735 v SL at Sydney 2015
   3       Sunil Narine     WI       709      26.49  4.10    791 v SL at Jamaica 2013
   4       Trent Boult      NZ       705*   24.08  4.64    738 v Eng at The Oval 2015
   5       Dale Steyn       SA       694      25.89  4.81    746 v Ind at Durban 2013
   6=     S. Al Hasan      Ban      690      28.35  4.30    717 v Zim at Chittagong 2009
            M. Johnson      Aus      690      25.26  4.83    724 v Ban at Darwin 2008
   8       Saeed Ajmal    Pak      665      22.73  4.18    810 v SA at Centurion 2013
   9       J. Anderson     Eng      650      29.22  4.92    719 v SA at The Oval 2013
  10      R. Ashwin        Ind       644      31.40  4.82    691 v SL at Hambantota 2012

Selected (top 50)

Rank   Player             Team   Points  Avge    Eco.     Highest Ranking
  14      Steven Finn      Eng      617      28.72  5.05    755 v NZ at Auckland 2013
  46      Moeen Ali        Eng      492*   39.76  4.82    510 v Ban at Adelaide 2015

All-rounders

Rank     Player                  Team     Points    HS Rating
   1         Shakib Al Hasan   Ban        418       453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009
   2         T. Dilshan            SL          379       415 v Sco at Hobart 2015
   3         Angelo Mathews SL          375       427 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 201