The ODI rankings witnessed a major shake-up on the opening day of the ICC Champions Trophy with India’s Shubman Gill and Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana rising to the top of the batting and bowling charts, respectively in the latest update released on Wednesday. Shubman overtook Pakistan’s Babar Azam to rise to the top of the ODI batting rankings while Theekshana took the premier position among the ODI bowlers for the first time by surpassing Afghanistan tweaker Rashid Khan.
Gill slammed two half centuries and a century in the recently-concluded home ODI series against England, that India won 3-0, making him the top run-getter in the series. He came up with scores of 87, 60 and 112 to aggregate 259 runs at an average of 86.33 and a strike rate of 103.60. The next highest scorer, Shreyas Iyer, was 78 behind Gill with 181 runs. This is the second time Gill has achieved the top spot in ODI cricket – the previous occasion was during the ODI World Cup in 2023 when he surpassed the same Babar. He has 796 rating points, while Babar has 773.
They are followed in the top five by India skipper Rohit Sharma, South African Heinrich Klaasen and New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell, who has moved up two places after the tri-series in Pakistan where he scored 81, 10 and 57.
Following the two-ODI series against England, Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka moved up eight spots to No. 8, while Mohammad Rizwan, the Pakistan captain, reached 15th place. While Sri Lanka are not a part of the Champions Trophy, having missed out on qualification, but along with Asalanka, Theekshana made the most of the two-ODI series at home against Australia, returning 4 for 40 and none for 11 to push Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan out of the top spot among the bowlers.
Rashid, who hasn’t played an ODI since December, isn’t too far behind Theekshana – he has 669 ratings points to the table-topper’s 680, and a good Champions Trophy campaign can help him regain the top spot.
Behind Theekshana and Rashid on the bowlers’ table is Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz, followed by India’s Kuldeep Yadav (up one place to fourth), and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi in the top five. South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj (re-enters the rankings in sixth) and New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner (up four rungs to seventh) are all inside the top 10 after making ground this week.