ICC ODI Rankings for Batsmen: MS Dhoni moves up two spots to No.8, AB de Villiers continues hold on No.1 position

AB de Villiers continues to be the No.1 ranked ODI batsman in the world

AB de Villiers of South Africa and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka have brought their battle for the coveted one-number batting spot in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen to Sydney when the two will go head to head in the first quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

De Villiers started the year leading Sangakkara by 76 ratings points and when the two players will take the field on Thursday, the South African will be leading the Sri Lankan by 38 ratings points. Both these outstanding cricketers are enjoying great form with de Villiers having scored 417 to date and Sangakkara leading the field with 496 runs, including four centuries.

While de Villiers has gained eight ratings points since the start of the tournament to enjoy his career-high rating of 899, Sangakkara has gained three places and 68 ratings points to sit on 861 ratings points, also his career-high rating.

Not too far behind the two batsmen are Hashim Amla of South Africa and India’s Virat Kohli.

Amla is in third position, 14 ratings points behind Sangakkara, while Kohli will go into Friday’s second quarter-final against Bangladesh in Melbourne trailing the South African by four ratings points.

While the four top batsmen have consolidated their positions in the latest batting chart, there are a few other batsmen who have made upward movements following their performances in the second half of the pool stage matches and will aim to continue to head in the right direction when they feature in the knockout stage.

Inside the top 10, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gained two places and is now in eight spot while Australia’s Glenn Maxwell has jumped eight places to occupy a career-best ninth position, just 17 ratings points behind Dhoni.

Outside the top 10, Suresh Raina of India is in 17th position (up by three places), Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad 24th (up by two places), Australia’s David Warner 25th(up by five places), Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh 27th (up by seven places), Australia’s Steven Smith 31st (up by six places), New Zealand’s duo of Martin Guptill 34th (up by eight places) and Corey Anderson 39th (up by eight places), Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah 44th (up by 17 places) and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan 44th (up by three places).

Zimbabwe’s former captain Brendan Taylor leads the batsmen who have gained places in the batting table but will not feature in the knockout stage.

Taylor, who is the second leading run-getter with 433 runs, has rocketed 13 places to claim 16th spot, while others include England’s pair of Jos Buttler in 22nd (up by six places) and Ian Bell 23rd (up by four places), Afghanistan’s Samiullah Shenwari 48th (up by four places) and Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams 49th (up by eight places).

Latest ICC ODI Rankings for Batsmen

Rank	Player	Country	Rating
1	AB de Villiers	SA	899
2	Kumar Sangakkara	SL	861
3	Hashim Amla	SA	847
4	Virat Kohli	IND	843
5	Tillakaratne Dilshan	SL	802
6	Kane Williamson	NZ	769
7	Shikhar Dhawan	IND	758
8	MS Dhoni	IND	731
9	Glenn Maxwell	AUS	714
10	George Bailey	AUS	708