Back-to-back centuries have helped England’s Joe Root to climb up to second position in the latest ODI rankings.
Root’s centuries have helped him vault into second place in the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings, which also sees India’s spinner Kuldeep Yadav break into the top 10 for the first time in his career.
In the three-match ODI series, which England clinched by a 2-1 margin with a win at Headingley on Wednesday, Root has leapfrogged Babar Azam (Pakistan), Rohit Sharma (India), David Warner (Australia) and Ross Taylor (New Zealand) to a career-high second position.
Root had scores of three, 113 not out and 100 not out, which have earned him 34 points and have now put him 93 points behind India captain Virat Kohli. Root had previously reached fourth in the batting rankings in August 2016 and is now just one point below his career-best points tally of 819, which he had achieved against Australia earlier this year in Brisbane.
Kohli has also strengthened his position following scores of 75, 45 and 71. Although he has earned just two points, these are enough to lift him to a career-high 911 points, which are sixth best in the list of all-time points and the highest since Australia’s Dean Jones’ tally of 918 points in March 1991.
Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan are the other batsmen to improve their rankings. Roy has moved up one place to 19th, while Morgan is now in 22nd spot after rising two places.
In the bowlers’ list, the biggest news is the movement of India’s Yadav. The left-arm wrist-spinner took nine wickets in the series, including six for 25 at Trent Bridge, which has been rewarded with a rise of eight places to a career-high sixth position.
Yadav is the second India bowler to feature in the top 10 after No 1-ranked Jasprit Bumrah and the fifth spinner to find a place in the 10 highest-ranked bowlers. The other four spinners are Rashid Khan (second), Imran Tahir (seventh), Adil Rashid (eighth) and Yuzvendra Chahal (10th).
The good news for England is the movement of their pace trio, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood and David Willey. Plunkett has gained one place and is now 20th, Wood is on a career-high 26th ranking after rising two places and Willey has jumped 11 places to claim 31st position.
There is no change in the top five all-rounders, with Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan leading the field.
Meanwhile, in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings, No 1-ranked England have moved to 127 points after gaining one point, while India have dropped one point to finish on 121 points. This means the four-point pre-series gap has now extended to six points.
The player rankings will now be updated on 29 July following the conclusion of Zimbabwe vs Pakistan and West Indies vs Bangladesh series.
The ODI team rankings, unlike the Test rankings, are updated after each match. The ICC ODI predictor function is available here.
MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 18 July, after the conclusion of England vs India series, and before the start of third ODI between Zimbabwe and Pakistan):
| RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | England | 127 (+1) |
| 2 | India | 121 (-1) |
| 3 | South Africa | 113 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 112 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 103 (+1) |
| 6 | Australia | 100 |
| 7 | Bangladesh | 93 |
| 8 | Sri Lanka | 77 |
| 9 | West Indies | 69 |
| 10 | Afghanistan | 63 |
| 11 | Zimbabwe | 54 (-1) |
| 12 | Ireland | 38 |
| 13 | Scotland | 33 |
| 14 | UAE | 18 |
*Nepal and the Netherlands will qualify for a full ranking after playing four more matches each
(Developed by David Kendix)
MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 18 July, after the conclusion of England v India series, and before the start of third ODI between Zimbabwe and Pakistan):
BATSMEN (top 20)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Points | Avge | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Virat Kohli | Ind | 911! | 58.20 | 911 v Eng at Headingley 2018 |
| 2 | (+4) | Joe Root | Eng | 818 | 51.61 | 819 v Aus at Brisbane 2018 |
| 3 | (-1) | Babar Azam | Pak | 808 | 51.33 | 846 v NZ at Wellington 2018 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Rohit Sharma | Ind | 806 | 44.98 | 825 v SL at Mohali 2017 |
| 5 | (-2) | David Warner | Aus | 803 | 43.43 | 880 v Pak at Adelaide 2017 |
| 6 | (-1) | Ross Taylor | NZ | 785 | 46.28 | 789 v Eng at Dunedin 2018 |
| 7 | ( – ) | Quinton de Kock | SA | 783 | 45.41 | 808 v Ban at East London 2017 |
| 8 | ( – ) | Faf du Plessis | SA | 782 | 44.68 | 802 v Ind at Durban 2018 |
| 9 | ( – ) | Kane Williamson | NZ | 778 | 46.87 | 798 v SA at Centurion 2015 |
| 10 | ( – ) | Shikhar Dhawan | Ind | 770 | 45.72 | 794 v SA at Melbourne 2015 |
| 11 | ( – ) | Jonny Bairstow | Eng | 769 | 50.30 | 777 v Aus at Durham 2018 |
| 12 | ( – ) | Hashim Amla | SA | 746 | 50.23 | 901 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2012 |
| 13 | ( – ) | Martin Guptill | NZ | 731 | 42.99 | 789 v SA at Hamilton 2017 |
| 14 | ( – ) | MS Dhoni | Ind | 714 | 51.25 | 836 v Aus at Delhi 2009 |
| 15 | ( – ) | Aaron Finch | Aus | 706 | 38.19 | 744 v Eng at Melbourne 2015 |
| 16 | ( – ) | Jos Buttler | Eng | 701 | 40.35 | 723 v Ban at Mirpur 2016 |
| 17 | ( – ) | Tamim Iqbal | Ban | 698 | 34.98 | 721 v Zim at Mirpur 2018 |
| 18 | ( – ) | Steve Smith | Aus | 675 | 41.84 | 752 v Pak at Sydney 2017 |
| 19= | ( – ) | Travis Head | Aus | 670*! | 37.00 | 670 v Eng at Old Trafford 2018 |
| (+1) | Jason Roy | Eng | 670 | 39.06 | 680 v Aus at Durham 2018 |
BOWLERS (top 20)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Points | Avge | Eco. Rate | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Jasprit Bumrah | Ind | 775* | 22.50 | 4.64 | 787 v SA at Centurion 2018 |
| 2 | ( – ) | Rashid Khan | Afg | 763* | 14.40 | 3.96 | 787 v Zim at Sharjah 2018 |
| 3 | ( – ) | Hasan Ali | Pak | 750* | 20.68 | 5.18 | 766 v NZ at Wellington 2018 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Trent Boult | NZ | 699 | 24.63 | 5.09 | 766 v Ind at Delhi 2016 |
| 5 | ( – ) | Josh Hazlewood | Aus | 696 | 24.27 | 4.72 | 733 v Eng at Adelaide 2018 |
| 6 | (+8) | Kuldeep Yadav | Ind | 684* | 19.35 | 4.82 | 698 v Eng at Lord’s 2018 |
| 7 | (-1) | Imran Tahir | SA | 683 | 24.81 | 4.68 | 786 v SL at Johannesburg 2017 |
| 8 | ( – ) | Adil Rashid | Eng | 681! | 30.80 | 5.52 | 681 v Ind at Headingley 2018 |
| 9 | (-2) | Kagiso Rabada | SA | 679 | 27.57 | 5.11 | 724 v Eng at Lord’s 2017 |
| 10 | (-2) | Y. Chahal | Ind | 666* | 23.86 | 4.72 | 668 v Eng at Lord’s 2018 |
| 11 | (-1) | Chris Woakes | Eng | 643 | 30.77 | 5.50 | 673 v NZ at Christchurch 2018 |
| 12 | (-1) | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 642 | 20.95 | 4.93 | 783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015 |
| 13 | (-1) | Mitchell Santner | NZ | 632 | 33.91 | 4.90 | 663 v Eng at Hamilton 2018 |
| 14 | (-1) | Moeen Ali | Eng | 621 | 45.08 | 5.09 | 629 v Aus at Old Trafford 2018 |
| 15 | ( – ) | Akshar Patel | Ind | 615* | 31.31 | 4.43 | 663 v Aus at Nagpur 2017 |
| 16 | ( – ) | Mohammad Nabi | Afg | 611 | 31.95 | 4.29 | 653 v Zim at Harare 2017 |
| 17 | ( – ) | Pat Cummins | Aus | 607 | 28.45 | 5.38 | 626 v Eng at Adelaide 2018 |
| 18 | ( – ) | Matt Henry | NZ | 606 | 24.59 | 5.57 | 675 v Aus at Hamilton 2016 |
| 19 | ( – ) | M. Rahman | Ban | 601* | 19.19 | 4.63 | 602 v Zim at Mirpur 2018 |
| 20 | (+1) | Liam Plunkett | Eng | 599 | 29.64 | 5.86 | 646 v Win at Southampton 2017 |
ALL-ROUNDERS (top five)
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Points | Highest Rating |
| 1 | ( – ) | Shakib Al Hasan | Ban | 359 | 453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009 |
| 2 | ( – ) | M. Hafeez | Pak | 332 | 438 v Ind at Kolkata 2013 |
| 3 | ( – ) | Mohammad Nabi | Afg | 323 | 349 v Ire at Greater Noida 2017 |
| 4 | ( – ) | Mitchell Santner | NZ | 317! | 317 v Eng at Christchurch 2018 |
| 5 | ( – ) | Angelo Mathews | SL | 306 | 427 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 2014 |
Photo: Philip Brown/Getty Images
