How India can top the ICC ODI rankings

In the recently released ICC ODI Team rankings, Australia have slipped to the sixth spot while Pakistan have reached the fifth place. While England and India are at the 1st and the 2nd places respectively, here is India’s chance to climb to the top of the ICC ODI rankings.

There seem to pairs of two each when one looks at the ICC ODI team rankings. While England and India are at 1 and 2 with 124 and 122 points, South Africa and New Zealand are at the 3rd and 4th spot with 113 and 122 points.

 

Pakistan and Australia are competing with each other with 102 points each. If India mange to win the 3-match ODI series against England, they will pip the English and climb to the top of the ICC ODI Team rankings.

Meanwhile, Australia is surely missing the presence of their gun batsmen in Captain Steve Smith and vice captain David Warner as the team has not been able to put up a good show in England. While they lost the first match comprehensively, the Aussies failed to get over the line in the 2nd ODI despite scoring over 300 runs.

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England batted first and put up a mammoth score of 342 for 8 on the back of Jason Roy’s century and Buttler’s late blitz. Although Shaun Marsh piled up a century for Australia, the score was too much for Australia to chase as the entire team bundled out for 304, gifting England their 2nd ODI victory of the series.

Australia is also feeling the brunt of its frontline quick bowlers in Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Michelle Stark who are all injured. However, if Australia manage to win even one of the remaining three matches against England, they will move back to their fifth spot and Pakistan will again have to content with sixth spot.

Regardless of the permutations and combinations, South Africa and New Zealand will retain the 3rd and the 4th spot respectively.