Virat Kohli has been dethroned from the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings following India’s 1-2 series loss against New Zealand. Kohli has been replaced by Kiwi batter Daryl Mitchell, who played a pivotal role in his team’s maiden ODI series win on Indian soil in 37 years.
Although Kohli’s rating increased by 10 points, Mitchell zoomed past him after a stellar ODI series against India. The New Zealand batter surged from 784 points to 845, widening the gap at the top of the rankings. Kohli had returned to the top spot last week after a series of big scores in the fifty-over format. However, Mitchell, who was closely following him in second place with just a one-point difference, has now surpassed him in the latest update.
Mitchell was adjudged Player of the Series in New Zealand’s historic triumph, finishing as the highest run-scorer with 352 runs from three innings at an average of 176. His tally included two hundreds and a fifty.
Behind Mitchell and Kohli, Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran (third, 764 ranking points) swapped places with India’s Rohit Sharma (fourth, 757 points). Apart from him, Rohit dropped to fourth in the rankings after an underwhelming return in the New Zealand series. The opening batter managed just 61 runs from three innings, failing to convert his starts.
KL Rahul has moved up to No.10 in the latest ICC ODI batting rankings, with Shreyas Iyer close behind at No.11, while Shubman Gill continues to hold the No.5 spot.
Rahul’s rise comes on the back of a strong ODI series against New Zealand, where the 32-year-old made an immediate impact with a match-winning, unbeaten knock in the series opener before backing it up with a superb century in the second match.
