Melbourne, Mar 16:
Having regained his form with two unbeaten knocks in the league stage of the cricket World Cup, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gained two spots to be placed eight in the latest ICC batting rankings.
Dhoni, who made an unbeaten 45 against West Indies and a brilliant 85 not out against Zimbabwe, has led the team to 10 consecutive World Cup wins surpassing Clive Lloyd’s streak of nine win for West Indies and is now second only to Ricky Ponting’s 21 straight wins for Australia in the 50-over showpiece event.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan is ranked seventh ahead of Dhoni while Virat Kohli (4) is the highest-ranked Indian in the batting chart led by South African captain AB de Villiers. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangkkara and Hashim Amla are placed at second and third respectively.
Outside the top-10, India’s Suresh Raina, who mesmerised the Auckland crowd with his unbeaten 110 in India’s win against Zimbabwe, has jumped three spots to be placed 17th.
The bowling chart is without any Indian in the top-10 as pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, who is just behind Australia’s Mitchell Starc in the wicket-takers list in this edition of the quadrennial event, is ranked 11th above Pakistan’s Mohammed Irfan.
Starc, who has bagged 16 wickets in the tournament so far, is ranked third behind Dale Steyn and the duo are closing in on top bowler Saeed Ajmal’s rating points.
Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are placed 16th and 18th respectively with medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (17) sandwiched in between.
Jadeja though is tied seventh with Australia’s Glenn Maxwell in the all-rounders list led by Sri Lanka’s Tilakaratne Dilshan.
The rankings though will see a rise and fall once the knockouts kickstart on Wednesday. (PTI)
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