Rohit Sharma moves into top five in ODI rankings

Sharma has gained two slots and it is the first time that he has crossed the 800-point mark. Though he has enjoyed a career-high ranking of third in February 2016, he reached a personal high of 825 points after the second match in Mohali when he struck an unbeaten 208, his third ODI double-century. He has ended the series with 816 points.

Rohit’s opening partner Shikhar Dhawan, named player of the series, too has gained one slot to reach 14th position after aggregating 168 runs including an unbeaten 100 in Visakhapatnam. Dhawan had slammed 68 in the second match, figuring in a 115-run opening stand with Sharma.

Among their bowlers, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has moved up 23 places to take 28th place after finishing with six wickets in the series, Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has moved up 16 places to take a career-best 56th slot while all-rounder Hardik Pandya has gained 10 slots to also reach a career-best 45th position.

For the visiting side, Upul Tharanga has gained 15 places to reach 36th position among batsmen with his current tally of 571 points his highest in five years. Niroshan Dickwella has gained seven places to take 37th position.

Pace bowler Suranga Lakmal (up 14 places to 22nd) and all-rounder Angelo Mathews (up nine places to 45th) have moved up in the list for bowlers.

There has been no change of positions in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings. India could have overtaken South Africa to take top position with a 3-0 win but that was ruled out early as they lost the opening match on a seaming track in Dharamsala.

Meanwhile, fifth-ranked New Zealand (111 points) take on ninth-ranked Windies (77 points) in a three-match ODI series after having clinched a preceding two-Test series 2-0.

Though New Zealand could lose as many as five ranking points if they go down 3-0 and the Windies could gain six points in such a scenario, there is not going to be any change in the ranking positions.

Series scenarios:

·         New Zealand win 3-0: New Zealand 112 (+1); Windies 76 (-1)

·         New Zealand win 2-1: New Zealand 110 (-1); Windies 78 (+1)

·         Windies win 2-1: New Zealand 108 (-3); Windies 80 (+3)

·         Windies win 3-0: New Zealand 106 (-5), Windies 83 (+6)

Captain Kane Williamson (10th) and Ross Taylor (15th) are the leading batsmen for New Zealand in terms of rankings, while Trent Boult (seventh) and Matt Henry (17th) are their best bowlers.

For the Windies, Chris Gayle is the top-ranked batsman (67th) in the absence of Marlon Samuels with captain Jason Holder (69th) next in the list. Holder is also their leading bowler in 27th position.

New Zealand v Windies ODI series itinerary:

20 December: 1st ODI, Whangarei

23 December: 2nd ODI, Christchurch

26 December: 3rd ODI, Christchurch

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 18 December, after the India-Sri Lanka series and before the New Zealand-Windies series):

Rank    Team                Points

1.     South Africa      121

2.     India                 119 (-1)

3.     Australia           114

4.     England            114

5.     New Zealand     111

6.     Pakistan           99

7.     Bangladesh       92

8.     Sri Lanka          84 (-1)

9.     West Indies       77

10.  Afghanistan      54

11.  Zimbabwe         52

12.  Ireland              41

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 18 December, after the India-Sri Lanka series and before the New Zealand-Windies series):

BATTING (top 10)

Rank      (+/-)       Player                    Team     Points    Avge     Highest Rating

   1          ( - )          Virat Kohli             Ind          876        55.74     889 v NZ at Kanpur 2017

   2          ( - )          AB de Villiers        SA           872        54.06     902 v NZ at Auckland 2015

   3          ( - )          David Warner       Aus         865        44.94     880 v Pak at Adelaide 2017

   4          ( - )          Babar Azam          Pak         846*!     58.60     846 v SL at Sharjah 2017

   5          (+2)         Rohit Sharma       Ind          816         45.23     825 v SL at Mohali 2017

   6          (-1)          Quinton de Kock  SA           808!       45.85     808 v Ban at East London 2017

  7          (-1)          Joe Root                Eng         802         50.00     808 v Win at Bristol 2017

   8          ( - )          Faf du Plessis       SA           773        43.90     791 v SL at Cape Town 2017

   9          ( - )          Hashim Amla       SA           766        51.25     901 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2012

  10         ( - )          Kane Williamson NZ           760        46.31     798 v SA at Centurion 2015

OTHER SELECTED RANKINGS

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points   Avge     Highest Rating

12           ( - )         Martin Guptill        NZ           728        42.71     789 v SA at Hamilton 2017

14           (+1)         Shikhar Dhawan  Ind          726        44.86     794 v SA at Melbourne 2015

15           (-1)          Ross Taylor          NZ           725        44.27     743 v Zim at Harare 2015

24           (+3)         Angelo Mathews  SL           632        41.85     707 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 2014

36           (+15)      Upul Tharanga     SL           571        33.89     663 v NZ at Napier 2006

37=         (+7)         N. Dickwella         SL           562*      33.63     605 v Ind at Pallekele 2017

BOWLING (top 10)

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points    Avge     Eco.       Highest Rating

   1          ( - )          Hasan Ali               Pak         759*!     19.82     5.11       759 v SL at Sharjah 2017

   2          ( - )          Imran Tahir           SA           743         23.72     4.64       786 v SL at Johannesburg 2017

   3          ( - )          Jasprit Bumrah    Ind          729*      22.71     4.74       731 v SL at Mohali 2017

   4          ( - )          Josh Hazlewood  Aus         714         23.85     4.69       732 v Eng at Edgbaston 2017

   5          ( - )          Kagiso Rabada    SA           708         26.08     5.05       724 v Eng at Lord's 2017

   6          ( - )          Mitchell Starc        Aus         684         20.13     4.81       783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015

   7          ( - )          Trent Boult            NZ           671         26.21     5.04       766 v Ind at Delhi 2016

   8          (+1)         Rashid Khan         Afg          649*!     14.48     3.91       649 v Ire at Sharjah 2017

   9=        (+1)         Sunil Narine          Win         646         26.46     4.12       791 v SL at Jamaica 2013

               (+1)         Liam Plunkett       Eng         646!       30.22     5.77       646 v Win at Southampton 2017

OTHER SELECTED RANKINGS

Rank      (+/-)         Player                    Team     Points    Avge     Eco.       Highest Rating

14           ( - )          Mitchell Santner   NZ           628!       33.81     4.95       628 v Ind at Kanpur 2017

17           ( - )          Matt Henry            NZ           597        25.26     5.62       675 v Aus at Hamilton 2016

22           (+14)      Suranga Lakmal  SL           574        30.52     5.39       592 v Ind at Dharamsala 2017

27          (-1)          Jason Holder        Win         558        33.62     5.47       605 v SL at Bulawayo 2016

28           (+23)      Y. Chahal              Ind          557*!     25.07     4.66       557 v SL at Visakhapatnam 2017

45=         (+9)         Angelo Mathews  SL           508         34.21     4.61       649 v Ind at Trinidad 2013

               (+10)      Hardik Pandya     Ind          508*!     35.48     5.56       508 v SL at Visakhapatnam 2017

56           (+16)      Kuldeep Yadav     Ind          467*!     24.77     4.88       467 v SL at Visakhapatnam 2017

63           (+11)      Nuwan Pradeep   SL           457*      42.60     6.01       464 v Ind at Dharamsala 2017

ALL-ROUNDERS (top five)

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points    Highest Rating

   1          ( - )          M. Hafeez             Pak         352        438 v Ind at Kolkata 2013

   2          ( - )          S. Al Hasan          Ban         346        453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

   3          (+2)         Angelo Mathews  SL           321        427 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 2014

   4          (-1)          M. Nabi                Afg          316        349 v Ire at Greater Noida 2017

   5          (-1)          Ben Stokes           Eng         293        299 v Win at Bristol 2017