In a surprising development that took fans by surprise, Indian cricket stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were “accidentally” removed from the latest ICC Men’s ODI batting rankings released on Wednesday. Just a week before the latest update, ODI skipper Rohit Sharma was ranked No.2 in the ICC Men’s batting rankings, and Kohli was ranked No. 4 in the world. However, none of the players featured were even in the top 100 earlier today, and that opened the floodgates to speculation on social media.
Following the widespread distress, an ICC spokesperson issued a clarification, much to the fans’ relief, stating that there had been a mistake with the International Cricket Council’s rankings. “There was an error in our rankings tables today, but it has been rectified,” the official told Hindustan Times.
Can players be dropped from ICC rankings?
According to ICC ranking rules, a player can be removed from the top 100 if they haven’t played a match within the qualifying period for a ranking update. This period is typically 12-15 months for Tests and 9-12 months for ODIs and T20Is.
Alternatively, a player can be removed from the rankings for good if they retire from a format or completely from international cricket. Due to this rule, Kohli and Rohit had been excluded from the latest Test and T20I rankings as both players bowed out from the shortest format of the game after their 2024 T20 World Cup victory. The famous Indian batting duo also announced their retirement from Tests in May of this year.
Who are the top 5 ODI batters presently, as per ICC rankings?
Post issuing the clarification, ICC restored its previous rankings for Men’s ODI batsmen with Indian opener Shubman Gill leading the chart. The list is dominated by Indian batters, with Rohit Sharma (2nd), Babar Azam (3rd), Virat Kohli (4th) and New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell (5th).