INDIA HAVE CHANCE TO OVERTAKE ENGLAND AND GRAB TOP ODI SPOT

South Africa, Pakistan need comprehensive wins in upcoming series to maintain respective positions; Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies vie for mid-table points

 ·       Seven of 10 sides to play in ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will be seen in action over the next one month

 ·       Nepal, Netherlands players will hope to make impressive entries in MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings

 England and India play the first match of their upcoming series in Nottingham on Tuesday, in what will kick off a month-long extravaganza of One Day Internationals featuring 10 sides, spread across four continents.

 Coming on the back of a well-contested Twenty20 International series, which India won 2-1, the top two sides in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Men’s Team Rankings present some interesting prospects in the three-match series a year ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to be hosted by England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July.

 India, who had conceded the top ranking to England at the annual update on 2 May, get a chance of claiming back the spot, but for that, they will have to blank their adversaries 3-0. England on the other hand will run up a lead of 10 points at the top of the table if they win by the same margin.

 The possibility of a change at the top though is not the only matter of interest in upcoming matches since seven of the 10 teams playing in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will be on view during this period until 12 August.

 Apart from the England-India series ending on 17 July, Zimbabwe will host Pakistan for five matches from 13 to 22 July, the West Indies will play three at home versus Bangladesh from 22 to 28 July, Sri Lanka will host South Africa for five matches from 29 July to 12 August and the Netherlands play two at home against Nepal.

 Fifth-placed Pakistan will have to win the series against Zimbabwe by a margin of 4-1 in order to ensure they do not slip behind sixth-placed Australia, while 10th-ranked Zimbabwe will have to pull off a 4-1 win over Pakistan in order to leapfrog Afghanistan and move up one spot in the rankings table.

 Similarly, third-ranked South Africa face the challenge of blanking Sri Lanka 5-0 in an away series to ensure they do not slip behind New Zealand even as mid-table sides Bangladesh (seventh), Sri Lanka (eighth) and the West Indies (ninth) will be vying for important points during this period.

 Nepal will debut in ODIs when they play two matches against the Netherlands on 1 and 3 August while the Netherlands will be turning out in ODIs for the first time since losing ODI status in 2014 at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. Nepal gained ODI status at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe earlier this year while the Netherlands regained it had earlier by winning the ICC World Cricket League Championship.

 The players of these two nations will be hoping to make impressive entries in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings, which could see a number of changes when the rankings are next updated on 13 August after 18 matches featuring many of the top players around the world.

 India captain Virat Kohli leads the rankings for batsmen with a career-high rating of 909 points, a good 96 points ahead of Pakistan’s Babar Azam, who will be hoping to get back into the groove after missing the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe due to injury.

 Fourth-ranked Rohit Sharma of India will be looking to continue his T20I form in the ODIs, sixth-ranked Joe Root of England has a good chance of overtaking Ross Taylor, while the South Africa pair of Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis as well as India’s left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan are the other players likely to be seen in action.

 In the bowlers’ list, top-ranked Jasprit Bumrah’s finger injury, due to which he will miss the series, gives others a chance to close the gap, and third-ranked Hasan Ali of Pakistan would be eyeing a return to the top spot. Leg-spinners Adil Rashid of England and Yuzvendra Chahal of India are other top 10 players who will be seen in upcoming matches.

 Upcoming series:

 England v India

 12 July – 1st ODI , Trent Bridge, Nottingham

14 July – 2nd ODI, Lord’s, London

17 July – 3rd ODI, Headingley, Leeds

 Zimbabwe v Pakistan

 13 July – 1st ODI, Bulawayo

16 July – 2nd ODI, Bulawayo

18 July, 3rd ODI, Bulawayo

20 July, 4th ODI, Bulawayo

22 July, 5th ODI, Bulawayo

 West Indies v Bangladesh

 22 July – 1st ODI, Guyana

25 July – 2nd ODI, Guyana

28 July – 3rd ODI, St Kitts

 Sri Lanka v South Africa

 29 July – 1st ODI, Dambulla

1 Aug – 2nd ODI, Dambulla

5 Aug – 3rd ODI, Kandy

8 Aug – 4th ODI, Kandy

12 Aug – 5th ODI, Colombo

 Netherlands v Nepal

 1 Aug – 1st ODI, VRA, Amsterdam

3 Aug – 2nd ODI, VRA, Amsterdam

 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 of 10 July):

 Rank    Team               Points

1          England            126

2          India                 122

3          South Africa      113

4          New Zealand     112

5          Pakistan            102

6          Australia           100

7          Bangladesh        93

8          Sri Lanka          77

9          Windies             69

10        Afghanistan       63

11        Zimbabwe         55

12        Ireland               38

13         Scotland             28

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 of 10 July):

 Batsmen (top 20)

 Rank      Player                  Team     Pts        Avge      Highest Rating

   1         Virat Kohli            Ind         909!      58.10     909 v SA at Centurion 2018

   2         Babar Azam         Pak        813       51.11     846 v NZ at Wellington 2018

   3         David Warner       Aus        803       43.43     880 v Pak at Adelaide 2017

   4         Rohit Sharma       Ind         799       44.55     825 v SL at Mohali 2017

   5         Ross Taylor          NZ          785       46.28     789 v Eng at Dunedin 2018

   6         Joe Root              Eng        784       49.82     819 v Aus at Brisbane 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         769       45.90     794 v SA at Melbourne 2015

  11        Jonny Bairstow    Eng        760       51.55     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         717       51.37     836 v Aus at Delhi 2009

  15        Aaron Finch         Aus        706       38.19     744 v Eng at Melbourne 2015

  16        Jos Buttler            Eng        705       40.67     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

  20        Jason Roy            Eng        666       39.06     680 v Aus at Durham 2018

 Bowlers (top 20)

 Rank      Player                  Team     Pts        Avge      Eco       Highest Rating

   1         Jasprit Bumrah     Ind         787*!     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        711*      21.40     5.29      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         Imran Tahir          SA          683       24.81     4.68      786 v SL at Johannesburg 2017

   7         Kagiso Rabada    SA          679       27.57     5.11      724 v Eng at Lord’s 2017

   8       Adil Rashid           Eng        667       31.14     5.55      677 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2018

   9           Y. Chahal             Ind         667*!     21.83     4.76      667 v SA at Centurion 2018

  10        Chris Woakes      Eng        653       30.77     5.50      673 v NZ at Christchurch 2018

  11        Mitchell Starc       Aus        642       20.95     4.93      783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015

  12        Mitchell Santner   NZ          632       33.91     4.90      663 v Eng at Hamilton 2018

  13        Moeen Ali             Eng        629!      44.26     5.08      629 v Aus at Old Trafford 2018

  14        Kuldeep Yadav    Ind         628*      20.02     4.80      637 v SA at Port Elizabeth 2018

  15        Akshar Patel        Ind         624*      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        Tim Murtagh         Ire          597       33.16     4.53      613 v Zim at Harare 2018

 All-rounders (top five)

 Rank      Player                  Team     Pts        Highest Rating

   1         S. Al Hasan          Ban        359       453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

   2         M. Hafeez            Pak        339       438 v Ind at Kolkata 2013

   3         M. 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

    6         Moeen Ali             Eng        306!      306 v Aus at Old Trafford 2018

 *Indicates a provisional rating

! Indicates career-best rating

For more information on player rankings, please click here.

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