AB de Villiers has become only the 11th player to break the 900-point mark in the ICC’s ODI player rankings released on Monday.
The Proteas’ ODI captain is only the second South African batsman after Hashim Amla to reach the impressive milestone.
According to the ICC website, 900 points means a player is truly great. De Villiers had an impressive World Cup where he finished as the third highest run-scorer with 482 at an astonishing average of 96.4.
De Villiers achieved the milestone during the Cricket World Cup semi-final against New Zealand when he scored 65 not out. He is now eighth on the list which includes the likes of Viv Richards (935), Zaheer Abbas (931), Greg Chappell (921), David Gower (919), Dean Jones (918), Javed Miandad (910), Brian Lara (908) and Desmond Haynes (900).
Imran Tahir, who also stood out during the World Cup, moved up three places to number three in the bowling rankings, while Morne Morkel jumped one place to nine.
There is no change in the top five batters but the biggest movers in the latest rankings are Steven Smith and Martin Guptill, who were selected in the ICC’s team of the World Cup.
Smith finished the series with 402 runs with one century and four half-centuries, while Guptill belted the highest World Cup individual score to date while scoring 237 not out on the way to finishing as the leading run-getter with 547 runs. As a result, Smith has jumped 19 places to a career-high 12th position, while Guptill has finished in 22nd place after rising 12 places.
India opener Rohit Sharma has also headed in the right direction after achieving a career-best ranking of 12th. Sharma scored 330 runs in the series for which he has been rewarded with a jump of seven places.
The curtain fell on the ODI careers of Michael Clarke, Brendan Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
Clarke finished his career in 29th spot (up by three places), Taylor 20th (down by four places), Misbah in 12th (up by one place), Sangakkara (second) and Jayawardene 34th (down by five places).
ICC ODI batsmen rankings
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Points | Ave |
| 1 | (-) | AB de Villiers | SA | 902 | 56.65 |
| 2 | (-) | Kumar Sangakkara | SL | 860 | 41.98 |
| 3 | (-) | Hashim Amla | SA | 828 | 55.26 |
| 4 | (-) | Virat Kohli | Ind | 822 | 51.47 |
| 5 | (-) | T. Dilshan | SL | 793 | 39.65 |
| 6 | (+1) | Shikhar Dhawan | Ind | 756 | 43.98 |
| 7 | (-1) | Kane Williamson | NZ | 733 | 44.76 |
| 8 | (-) | MS Dhoni | Ind | 731 | 52.46 |
| 9 | (-) | Glenn Maxwell | Aus | 720 | 35.05 |
| 10 | (-) | George Bailey | Aus | 697 | 42.02 |
ICC ODI bowler rankings
| Rank | (+/-) | Player | Team | Points | Ave |
| 1 | (+2) | Mitchell Starc | Aus | 783 | 18.33 |
| 2 | (+3) | Imran Tahir | SA | 734 | 20.51 |
| 3 | (-2) | Saeed Ajmal | Pak | 718 | 22.18 |
| 4 | (-2) | Dale Steyn | SA | 717 | 25.57 |
| 5 | (-1) | Sunil Narine | WI | 709 | 26.49 |
| 6 | (+2) | Mitchell Johnson | Aus | 693 | 25.26 |
| = | (+9) | Trent Boult | NZ | 693 | 25 |
| 8 | (-2) | James Anderson | Eng | 670 | 29.22 |
| 9 | (+1) | Morne Morkel | SA | 666 | 23.98 |
| 10 | (-3) | Shakib Al Hasan | Ban | 659 | 28.31 |
