India captain Virat Kohli continued his record breaking spree after the International Cricket Council announced that he had crossed the 900-point mark in the One-day International rankings. He became only the seventh batsman to do so and currently lies seventh in the all-time list with 909 points. The highest in the table is West Indian great Viv Richards, who has 935 points to his name.
Read more: In ODIs, Virat Kohli is in a league of his own
Late last year, Kohli crossed the 900-point mark in Tests too: He currently lies second in the table in the longest format, 35 behind Australia captain Steve Smith, who has 947 rating points.
Only four batsmen before Kohli have managed to cross the 900-point mark previously in ODIs and Tests – Richards, Brian Lara, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. The 29-year-old is a whopping 65 points ahead of the second-placed De Villiers in the fifty-over format.
Kohli’s pyrotechnics played a huge hand in his side registering a thumping 5-1 win in recently concluded bilateral series against South Africa. He smashed 558 runs – a new record – in the six games, scoring at an astounding average of 186 a piece. The India captain is now a good 22 points clear of Sachin Tendulkar, whose ODI career high of 887 points came against Zimbabwe in January 1998.
Kohlis aggregate is the best since Brian Lara reached 911 points in March 1993. India opener Shikhar Dhawan, who aggregated 323 runs in the South Africa series, is another notable gainer in the latest rankings. Indian bowlers also made rapid strides in the latest rankings, including the wrist-spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
Windfall for leg-spinners, Bumrah
Chahal has moved up eight slots to 21st position with 16 wickets in the South Africa series while Yadav’s 17 scalps have helped him move up 15 positions to take the 47th position. Bumrah’s eight wickets have lifted him two places to take the joint-first position.
Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has joined Bumrah at the top with 16 wickets in the series against Zimbabwe which Afghanistan won 4-1 to become the youngest to attain top ranking.
The 19-year-old’s 51 runs in two innings in the series, including a brisk 43 in the final match, has also helped him break into the top-five in the list of all-rounders. He has also moved up 11 slots to take 114th place among batsmen.
For South Africa, Faf du Plessis 120-run knock in the first ODI against India, after which he was ruled out due to an injury, has seen him gain one slot to reach eight position.
Meanwhile, India (123) continued to top the ODI team rankings, followed by South Africa (117) and England (116). Interestingly, Afghanistan have overtaken Zimbabwe in the ODI Rankings. Afghanistan have gained four points to take the 10th position with 55 points while Zimbabwe have lost three to lie on 50 points.
