Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan and India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah have jointly risen to the top spot in the ICC rankings for bowlers in ODIs. Rashid, aged 19 years 153 days, became the youngest ever No.1 in men’s rankings history. The pair displaced South Africa legspinner Imran Tahir, who slid to sixth spot after taking only one wicket in four ODIs at home against India.
Rashid took 16 wickets in five matches against Zimbabwe, at an outstanding average of 7.93. He also scored 51 runs in two innings with the bat, including a match-winning 43 off 29 balls in the fifth ODI on Monday, to break into the top five among allrounders. Afghanistan overtook Zimbabwe as the tenth-ranked team following their 4-1 series win in Sharjah.
Among batsmen, India captain Virat Kohli, who became the first batsman to rack up 500 or more runs in a bilateral ODI series, breached the 900-point mark. As a result, he now holds a rare feat of crossing 900 points in both Tests and ODIs – one among five batsmen to have done so – and only the second batsman after AB de Villiers to do it simultaneously. Kohli had amassed 558 runs in six innings, including three hundreds, to lead India to their first ODI series win in South Africa.
Kohli’s 909 points took him ahead of Brian Lara in the all-time list, led by Vivian Richards, who had aggregated 935 points. Kohli now occupies the seventh spot, and his aggregate is the highest since Brian Lara reached 911 points in March 1993. Shikhar Dhawan, who was the second-highest score behind Kohli in the ODIs in South Africa with 323 runs in six innings, jumped four spots to tenth.
Other big movers included the wristspinning duo of Yuzvendra Chahal, who rose eight places to 21st, and Kuldeep Yadav, who climbed 15 places to 47th. (ESPNCricinfo)
