Virat Kohli Steady at 4th, Shikhar Dhawan Rises to 6th in ICC Rankings for Batsmen

A lacklustre World Cup performance notwithstanding, Virat Kohli remained the highest-placed Indian batsman at fourth even as Shikhar Dhawan rose a rung to sixth in the latest ICC ODI rankings issued on Tuesday.

Apart from Kohli and Dhawan, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the other Indian batsman to be inside the top-10, hanging on to the eighth spot. ('Virat Kohli, the leader, must play more responsibly')

Opener Rohit Sharma made significant strides up the order as he jumped seven places to be joint 12th with Australian swashbuckler Steve Smith and Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq. Rohit scored 330 runs in the tournament. (Virat Kohli has been sensational in Australia: Dravid)

Australia retained the ODI Shield and won USD 175,000 after finishing as the number-one ranked side on the April 1 cut-off date. ('Team India should start preparing for World Cup 2015')

India collected USD 75,000 for finishing second in the team rankings. Among the bowlers, Australia's Mitchell Starc has surged to the top for the first time in his career following a stellar performance in the World Cup that also fetched him the player of the tournament award.

The 25-year-old left-arm fast bowler finished ICC's pinnacle 50-over tournament as joint-leading wicket-taker with New Zealand's Trent Boult (22 wickets), including two for 20 in eight overs in the final against New Zealand.

This performance has helped Starc to rise two places and claim the number-one position for the first time. Starc had entered World Cup in seventh position and during the course of the tournament, he gained 147 ratings points.

He currently sits on 783 rating points, which is also his career-best rating and was achieved during the final played in front of over 93,000 spectators.

Australia's James Faulkner, who was adjudged the player of the final, has also made an upward movement along with India's Umesh Yadav. Yadav has broken into the top 20 for the first time in his career following his 15 wickets in the series, including four for 72 in the semi-final against Australia. Yadav has rocketed 16 places to join England's James Tredwell in 18th position.

In the rankings for ODI batsmen, South Africa captain AB de Villiers continued to lead the charts and has also become the 11th batsman overall, and second South African after Hashim Amla, to break the 900-point mark. In ranking terms, 900 points marks out a player as truly great.

De Villiers achieved the milestone during the semi-fina against New Zealand when he scored 65 not out. He is no eighth on the list behind Viv Richards (935), Zaheer Abba (931), Greg Chappell (921), David Gower (919), Dean Jone (918), Javed Miandad (910) and Brian Lara (908). Desmon Haynes (900) completes the tally of 11 batsmen.

There is no change in the top five batters but th biggest movers in the latest rankings are Smith and Marti Guptill, who were yesterday named in the Team of the Worl Cup

Smith finished the series with 402 runs with one century and four half-centuries, while Guptill belted the highes World Cup individual score to date while scoring 237 not ou on the way to finishing as the leading run-getter with 54 runs.

As a result, Smith has jumped 19 places to a career-hig 12th position, while Guptill has finished in 22nd place afte rising 12 places.

The curtain fell on the ODI careers of Michael Clarke Brendan Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahel Jayawardene. Clarke finished his career in 29th spot (up b three places), Taylor 20th (down by four places), Misbah i 12th (up by one place), Sangakkara (second) and Jayawarden 34th (down by five places)

 

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders Tillakaratne Dilshan has retained his top spot, followed b Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh. The only change in the top 1 was the entry of South Africa's JP Duminy, who has moved up four places to ninth spot.

Pakistan's Shahid Afridi has signed off on his ODI caree as sixth ranked all-rounder. In the batting chart, he was 44t while 30th in the bowling table.