In a remarkable turn of events, Shubman Gill has surpassed Babar Azam to claim the top spot in the Men’s ODI batting rankings. Among the ODI bowlers too, an Indian has taken the lead, with Mohammad Siraj moving up two places and surpassing Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Indeed, the perspective from India is clear in the bowling rankings, with Kuldeep Yadav now in the top five, and Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami both in the top ten. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, following a brilliant World Cup campaign with two centuries and an incredible semi-final knock, has risen three places to reach number four, just one rating point behind the leading run-scorer of the tournament, Quinton de Kock.
For Shubman Gill, it has been a splendid year in One-Day cricket, amassing 1449 runs in 26 matches, including four centuries, one of which was a double century. His average for the year is an astonishing 63.00, while his career average stands at 61.02. After missing the start of the competition due to dengue fever, he had a slow beginning in the World Cup but now has 219 runs to his name in six matches, including half-centuries against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In the World Cup, Babar’s performance has been less than spectacular so far, but the difference between him and the emerging Gill was so marginal that he has had to work harder to maintain his position for over two weeks.
From India’s perspective, Gill is now the fourth-highest-ranked ODI batsman, following in the footsteps of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and Kohli.
Meanwhile, the best individual batting performance in the World Cup so far took place in Mumbai on Tuesday night when Glenn Maxwell single-handedly propelled Australia ahead of Afghanistan in a thrilling showdown, reaching the semi-finals. His unbeaten double century propelled him to sixth place, while the second centurion of the campaign, Ibrahim Zadran, is 12th after a remarkable World Cup effort. Fakhar Zaman, another batsman who played a crucial role in his team’s fate, is ranked just outside the top ten at 11.
Overall, the rankings demonstrate India’s dominance in the World Cup, where they have won all eight league matches so far. Kohli (No. 2 after De Kock) and Rohit Sharma (No. 5) have been their most outstanding batsmen thus far, but it is their bowling that has truly been a blockbuster. None of their wicket-takers feature in the top three, but Shami (16 wickets in four matches), Bumrah (15 in eight), Ravindra Jadeja (14 in eight), Kuldeep (12 in eight), and Siraj (10 in eight) have delivered as a unit. In their last three matches, India has bowled out England for 129, Sri Lanka for 55, and South Africa for 83.
Siraj, who claimed 3/16 and 1/11 against Sri Lanka and South Africa at the start of the week, has now jumped to third and first place in the respective rankings. Afridi, who was No. 1 last week, has slipped to fifth, while spinners Keshav Maharaj and Adam Zampa, the second and third highest wicket-takers in the current World Cup, are second and third.
As for other top wicket-takers in the World Cup right now, Dushmantha Chameera has climbed 31 places to reach 45th, and Marko Jansen has moved nine places to 24th.”
