Indian batsman Shubman Gill has mounted to second place in the latest ICC Men’s ODI Rankings announced on Wednesday. He is now just five rating points behind Pakistan’s Babar Azam. His back-to-back half centuries score secured in the ongoing ODI series against England have brought him close to becoming the top ranked batter in ODI cricket.

As per present ranking, Babar holds number.1 rank but the gap has become significantly lesser. The third slot is occupied by Indian captain Rohit Sharma after scoring a massive century in Cuttack and is just 13 rating points behind the Pakistan star cricketer. The competition for the top ODI batsman is growing tougher as the ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to take place in UAE and Pakistan in just a week.

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As per latest report, many players have re-entered the ODI rankings slot following their comeback to 50-over cricket. Players like Fakhar Zaman have moved to 13th rank and Kane Willamson is on 29th and Jos Buttler is on 38th, Devon Konway on 40th and Joe Root has climbed up to 51th rank.

Meanwhile, there is also fierce competition among the bowlers too, as just 18 rating points is separating Rashid Khan, Maheesh Theekshana, Bernard Scholtz, Shaheen Afridi and Kuldeep Yadav in the top five slot.

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Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi is leading in the all the rounder rankings, whereas New Zealand’s Mitchell Santer has moved forward two slots and is currently on seventh. Major changes were noticed in the latest Test rankings as Australia’s Usman Khawaja has returned to the top 10 batters list and ascended to 9th place. Another teammate Alex Carey has earned 11 spots and has been awarded 18th rank after he scored a century against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis is at 28th position and Ireland’s Lorcan Tucker is at 49th and Andy McBrine is on 70th slot. Similarly, these three players’ rankings have improved because of their Test performances. Among bowlers, Australia’ s Nathan Lyon has reached his career high on fifth position whereas Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani has bounced to 14th place to 29th rank after delivering a spectacular performance in Bulawayo.

(With inputs from PTI)