ICC Commits Massive Blunder On Virat Kohli's No. 1 ODI Ranking, Forced By Fans To Fix
Virat Kohli's rise to the No. 1 spot in the ICC ODI batting rankings came with an interesting set of events unfolding on social media.
- Virat Kohli reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the ODI batting rankings, but the ICC made an error on social media
- ICC's graphic showed Kohli had spent 825 days as No. 1 across his career, instead of the actual 1,547 days
- Fans were quick to point it out, eventually leading to the ICC deleting their post and making a correction
Virat Kohli's sensational recent form has seen him rise to the No. 1 spot in the ICC ODI rankings for the first time in nearly five years. The 37-year-old has slammed five scores of 50 or more in his last six matches, including two centuries. However, soon after, the ICC incorrectly posted a social media graphic of how many days Kohli had spent as the No. 1 ODI batter across his career. ICC's mistake was pointed out by several netizens, and eventually it was amended.
In the initial graphic, the ICC had stated that Kohli had spent 825 days as the No. 1-ranked men's ODI batter across his career, ranking him 10th in the list of most days spent by a cricketer as the top-ranked ODI batter.
However, this was seemingly a glaring error as several previous documents of the ICC mention that Kohli has spent 1,547 days in the top spot.
Eventually, the social media post was deleted by the ICC, and they also reiterated that Kohli had indeed spent 1,547 days as the No. 1 ODI batter.
ICC deleted this post after massive backlash from Virat Kohli fans and corrected their mistake.
— Mention Cricket (@MentionCricket) January 15, 2026
ICC mentioned that Virat Kohli spent 825 days as the No.1 ODI batter, but in reality, he held the top spot for 1,547 days.
How can a big cricketing body like the ICC make such a... pic.twitter.com/2QHC5KMeSV
This, therefore, takes Kohli from 10th spot all the way up to third in the list, only behind West Indies legends Sir Vivian Richards (2,306 days) and Brian Lara (2,079 days).
Active in only one format now, Kohli had made seven scores of 50 or more across ODI and domestic List A cricket until the second match against New Zealand on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old smashed two spectacular hundreds against South Africa in December, and then made a superb return to the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's premier 50-over domestic tournament, slamming a century there too.
Kohli kickstarted the ODI series against New Zealand in January with another knock of 93 to guide India to victory in the first ODI.
Virat Kohli
India Cricket Team