It may have been a poor outing for Team India in the ODI series but former skipper Virat Kohli did well enough to retain his No. 2 spot with 836 rating points in the latest ODI rankings issued by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday, January 26. Kohli didn’t look in his usual dominating touch but scored 116 runs in the three-match series against South Africa on the back of a couple of well-compiled half-centuries.
India’s white-ball captain Rohit Sharma, who didn’t feature in the series as he was recovering from the hamstring injury, too has retained his spot as he is in No. 3 place with veteran New Zealand batter Ross Taylor with 801 rating points while Pakistan skipper Babar Azam remained at the top spot. However, the biggest gainers were the Proteas batsmen Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen.
De Kock, who was the ‘Player of the Series’ after aggregating 229 runs in three games, which included a 124-run knock in the third game in Cape Town and a 78 in the second game in Paarl, moved into the Top 5 with 783 points. The other player, who caused a headache for India on this tour, not just in the ODIs but also the Test matches, van der Dussen moved up by 10 places to be in 10th position.
Van der Dussen scored 218 runs in three games and was dismissed just once, in the final game of the series as he returned scores of 129*, 37* and 52. Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma with 153 runs in the series, including a century rose by 21 places to No. 59.
As far as the bowlers are concerned, off-colour Bhuvneshwar Kumar slipped by four places to sit at No. 22 spot while Proteas pair of Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj made big leaps. Ngidi, with 5 wickets moved up by 4 places to No. 20, while Maharaj rose up by 18 places to No. 33.
While South Africa have now a two-Test tour to New Zealand, India have a 6-match white-ball series against West Indies at home including 3 ODIs and as many T20Is.
