India Moves to Second Place in ICC ODI Rankings

Coming off their series win in New Zealand, India was ranked second in the latest Reliance ICC ODI Championship rankings, displacing Australia. South Africa remained at the top of the league. In test match rankings, Australia remains at the top of the table, followed by South Africa and India.

M S Dhoni is at the top of the individual rankings for Batsmen, followed by Hussey, and in bowling, K.M.D.N. Kulasekara and K.D. Mills were placed first and second respectively. These rankings track all international matches played, using a time-weighted score to assign a rating to each team in the test and ODI formats.

India is only a point ahead of Australia in the ODI rankings, at 122, with South Africa at 127. This gives Gary Kirsten and M S Dhoni good ammunition against critics, although Dhoni's captaincy has received numerous accolades of late, including from Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.

Australia, on the other hand, has been somewhat out of form this year, losing seven of nine ODIs against South Africa. Their current series against South Africa will be interesting to watch, and the follow-on against Pakistan could give them a chance to reverse this ranking. They recently lost the fourth ODI at Port Elizabeth, and currently trail South Africa 3-1, with one match still to be played.