Pakistan’s stranglehold at the top of the ICC Men’s ODI Batter Rankings is under threat after a large group of Indian players made ground on the latest update following their unbeaten start to the Asia Cup.
India is yet to taste defeat at the Asia Cup and much of their success has been down to a dominant top order that has been led superbly by Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and skipper Rohit Sharma.
Gill already has two half-centuries at the tournament and a total of 154 runs and the right-hander has been rewarded in the latest rankings by rising to a career-best second-placed with just Pakistan skipper Babar Azam ahead of him.
Gill has closed the margin considerably on the Pakistan captain, with the gap at the top down to just 103 rating points now with Babar leading the way on 863 rating points and the India opener with 759 points.
Gill isn’t the only India star on the move, with Kohli rising two places to eighth and Rohit jumping two spots of his own to ninth on the latest batter rankings, which means India has three players inside the top 10 for the first time in more than four and a half years.
You have to go way back to the start of 2019 to find the last time India had three players this high in the rankings for ODI batters, with opener Shikhar Dhawan joining Rohit and Virat inside the top 10 way back in January of that year.
Pakistan still has three players of their own inside the top 10 batters, but Imam-ul-Haq drops one place to fifth, and fellow opener Fakhar Zaman loses three spots and is now 10th.
Meanwhile, Australia veteran David Warner jumps one place to fourth on the updated batter rankings after his quickfire half-century in the third match of the South Africa series, while fellow left-hander Travis Head shoots up six spots to 20th on the same list.
S/N Batter Country Rating
1 Babar Azam Pakistan 863
2 Shubman Gill India 759
3 Rassie Van Der Dussen South Africa 745
4 David Warner Australia 739
5 Imam-ul-Haq Pakistan 735
6 Harry Tector Ireland 726
7 Quinton de Kock South Africa 721
8 Virat Kohli India 715
9 Rohit Sharma India 707
10 Fakhar Zaman Pakistan 705
Source: Pro Pakistani
