Dubai, August 03: India has moved up to second place on the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table following the annual update.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team has jumped ahead of Australia and is now just one ratings point behind number-one-ranked South Africa after the adjustment.
The annual update is carried out to ensure the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table continues to reflect recent form with older results being discarded.
The table reflects all ODIs between the teams represented on the table that took place since 1 August two years ago. All matches played until the start of next August will be added to this table, so by then the ratings will be based on three years of results and, over those three years, matches played in the most recent year will carry most weight.
Next August the first year of results will be dropped and this pattern is repeated each August, with the oldest of the three years of results removed to be gradually replaced with results of matches played over the following 12 months.
Thus, once a year, the rankings change overnight without any new ODIs necessarily being played. India’s rise in this year’s update reflects its outstanding record during the past 12 months and also the dropping of a much poorer set of results in the year ending July 2007.
With the ICC Champions Trophy, which takes place from 22 September to 5 October in South Africa, the battle for supremacy atop the table will add extra spice to that elite eight-team event. That battle could end up being a three-horse race if Australia or England is dominant when those teams go head to head in a seven-match ODI series in September.
England has fared well as a result of the update as it rises two places from sixth to fourth spot in the latest team rankings. As a consequence, New Zealand falls from fourth to fifth position with Pakistan dropping to sixth spot after losing the first two of the ongoing ODI series in Sri Lanka.
Indeed, if Younus Khan’s team loses the next ODI in Dambulla on Monday, it will fall below Sri Lanka into seventh spot albeit with an immediate chance to retake sixth place in the fourth and fifth ODIs of the series.
Meanwhile, Kumar Sangakkara has returned to the top 10 of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen after helping his side to victory in the first and second ODIs of the current series against Pakistan.
The news is not so good for Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan who slips two places to 15th position while his team-mate Shoaib Malik and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya also lose ground to joint-19th spot.
Their loss is India’s and New Zealand’s gain, however, as Gautam Gambhir and Ross Taylor both move up to joint-17th position in the latest rankings.
The batting list is still headed by the Indian duo of Dhoni in first place and Yuvraj Singh in second position. Australia’s Michael Hussey is currently third.
Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan continues his rise up the rankings and has gained two more places to third in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers. Shakib has benefited from the fact that Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran has slipped two spots in the latest rankings and now sits in fifth position.
The other main mover in the top 20 of the bowling list is Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, who drops three places to 12th position after the first matches of the ongoing series in Sri Lanka.
Afridi’s woes also extend to the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders as the 29-year-old slips one place to fourth with Shakib still the man in possession of number-one position.
New Zealand’s Jacob Oram benefits from Afridi’s slip, moving up two places to third position. Afridi’s team-mate Shoaib Malik has dropped out of the top five, slipping four places to seventh spot in the all-rounders’ list. Australia’s James Hopes moves into fifth position as a consequence.
–IANS–