Kagiso Rabada, South Africa’s 22-year-old pace sensation, has leapfrogged team-mate Imran Tahir to become the No. 1 ODI bowler in the world. The top-two one-day bowlers aside, South Africa go into the Champions Trophy with four of the top-ten batsmen in the format as well, as per the latest update to the ICC rankings. AB de Villiers lead the charts, while Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla complete the quartet.
Rabada climbed four spots following the three-match ODI series against England, in which he was the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets at 21.71 – including 4 for 39 in the third game, which helped reduce England to 20 for 6 – and an economy rate of 5.42. Overall in 36 ODI innings since his debut in July 2015, he has 64 wickets at 24.90 and an economy rate of 5.13.
Amla and de Kock were the second and third top scorers in the series, and both move up on the rankings – de Kock from No. 6 to No. 4, and Amla from eleven to ten. De Villiers retained the No. 1 spot, while du Plessis and Tahir lost some ground on the table, falling to No. 2 and No. 6 respectively.
Top-10 ODI batsmen
1 AB de Villiers, 2 David Warner, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Quinton de Kock, 5 Joe Root, 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Babar Azam and Martin Guptill, 9 Kane Williamson, 10 Hashim Amla
Top-10 ODI bowlers
1 Kagiso Rabada, 2 Imran Tahir, 3 Mitchell Starc, 4 Sunil Narine, 5 Josh Hazlewood, 6 Trent Boult, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Mohammad Nabi, 9 Shakib Al Hasan, 10 Mitchell Santner. (ESPNCricinfo)
