Kohli Closes in on Gill

India batting icon Virat Kohli has closed the gap on captain Shubman Gill at the top of the ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings, despite both players scoring centuries in the first ODI against the West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.

Kohli’s unbeaten 139 from 88 deliveries has taken him past 15,000 ODI runs as India chased down a target of 296 with 50 deliveries to spare. His record-extending 55th ODI ton has helped him overtake Daryl Mitchell to second position and to within 20 rating points of top-ranked Gill.

Kohli was 34 points behind Gill’s 801 rating points before the match and though Gill’s knock of 110 lifted his own points tally to 816, Kohli has moved from 767 to 796, bridging the gap by 14 rating points. Kohli’s rating points now are his highest since July 2022.

Kohli was number three for a three-day stint in January this year and would be once again gunning for the top position, where he has spent 1,547 days in all, with only West Indian greats Vivian Richards and Brian Lara occupying more time as No. 1.

England opener Tom Banton was the Player of the Match for scoring 126 off 105 in the third ODI against Sri Lanka and has ended the series in 83rd position, gaining a whopping 333 places. Kusal Mendis, who aggregated 198 runs in the series, is at a career-best seventh position while Ben Duckett has moved up four places to 15th.

In the latest weekly update that considers performances in the last two matches of the England versus Sri Lanka series and the first two of the South Africa versus Australia series apart from the Thiruvananthapuram match, Matthew Breetzke’s 136 runs including a century in the series opener in Durban has lifted him 19 places to 21st while David Miller returns to the rankings in 41st position after scoring 151 runs including a century in Johannesburg.

Captain Temba Bavuma, who also notched a ton in the second match as South Africa took a winning 2-0 lead in the three-match series, has advanced 10 slots to 32nd position while Will Jacks (up six places to 71st) and Marco Jansen (up 42 places to 87th) have also progressed.

The ICC Men’s ODI Bowling Rankings see left-arm spinners Keshav Maharaj of South Africa and Kuldeep Yadav of India make headway. Maharaj’s six wickets in the two ODIs against Australia have lifted him three places to third while Yadav’s haul of four for 40 in Thiruvananthapuram has lifted him four slots to fifth position.

Australia’s Josh Hazlewood is back in the top 10 after grabbing three wickets at the Wanderers while his team-mate Nathan Ellis (up two places to 15th), West Indies’ Jayden Seales (up four places to 22nd), Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage (up 12 places to 26th) and India’s M. Prasidh Krishna (up six places to 42nd) are others to move up the bowlers’ list.