India captain Virat Kohli's two half-centuries in the recently-concluded Australia vs India ODI series have cemented his spot at the top of the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings for batsmen.
Despite missing the ODI series owing to a hamstring injury, his compatriot Rohit Sharma remains at number two, five points ahead of Babar Azam who is on third.
During the first ODI of India's tour of Australia in Sydney, India batsman Hardik Pandya missed out closely from becoming the third batsman to score a century in the match following the likes of Australia captain Aaron Finch and batsman Steven Smith.
Playing his first ODI since the World Cup 2019, Pandya struck 90 in the first game and 92 not out in the third to make his first appearance in the top 50 batsmen at 49th place with a career-best of 553 points.
From the Australian camp, captain Aaron Finch’s innings of 114 in the first Australia vs India ODI, followed by 60 and 75 helped him up to a career-best tally of 791 points and fifth place, just behind his best of fourth achieved earlier June 2019.
Steve Smith’s pair of 62-ball centuries in the first two matches enabled him to move back into the ODI to 20 batsmen for the first time since 2018. He is currently at number fifteen with 707 points. Glenn Maxwell’s 167 runs in the series came at a strike rate of 194.18 and featured two half-centuries, to push him back up to 20th rank. This is the first time he has been in the top 20 since February 2017.
In a series dominated by batsmen, Adam Zampa made the big impact with the ball, enabling him an entry in the top 20 ODI bowlers for the very first time. Zampa’s seven wickets at 23 took him to the 14th position with a career-best 623 points. Josh Hazlewood took six wickets and moved up a place to the sixth rank.
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If it was not for Pandya...