Virat & Rohit retains their No 1 and 2 spots in ICC player rankings for ODI

Dubai:India skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy, Rohit Sharma, have retained their No 1 and 2 spots in the MRF Tyres ICC player rankings for ODI.Ross Taylor, who is set to play in his fourth 50-over World Cup, has also maintained his position at No.3 to make for a formidable top five going into the World Cup.

Shai Hope, the West Indies batsman, jumped five places to enter the top five of the ODI Rankings for batting after his splendid performances in the recent tri-nation series in Ireland.

The top-order batsman, who now has a career-best points tally of 808 and sits at No.4 in the batting rankings, accumulated 470 runs at 94.00. He recorded two fifties and two centuries, one of which was a match-winning 170 against the hosts in Dublin. 

Such was the quality of Hope's batting that skipper Jason Holder said he could become the country's greatest ODI cricketer of all time. "Shai has been our most consistent player over the last two years and if he continues in that vein, he could be arguably one of our best ODI players to ever play," he had said. 

Fakhar Zaman, the new entrant in the top 10, ascended two places to reach No.9 after scores of 138 and 57 in the series against England. Other significant gainers in the top 50 include Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq at No.14 (up eight places) and Sarfaraz Ahmed at No.47 (up nine), Bangladesh's Soumya Sarkar at No.28 (up 10 places) and Ireland's Andrew Balbirnie at No.50 (up eight).

Chris Woakes, the leading wicket-taker in the Pakistan series with 10 scalps in four games, entered the top 10 in the bowling rankings. The England all-rounderjumped nine spots to slot into No.9 with 657 points.

India's Jasprit Bumrah, New Zealand's Trent Boult and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan remained at the top of the pile with 774, 759 and 726 points respectively. Mehidy Hasan, the Bangladesh pacer, gained eight spots to join Australia's 

Mitchell Starc at No.22, while Mashrafe Mortaza, his skipper, moved up to No.24 (up four places). Pakistan's Imad Wasim climbed nine spots to enter the top 30 at No.28 after adding six England scalps to his name.(UNI)