Quantcast

Warner officially the world's best ODI batter

Australia vice captain's ODI purple patch acknowledged in latest ICC rankings update

David Warner had capped a superb month by soaring to top spot in the ICC rankings for one-day international batsmen for the first time.

The world No.1 ranking comes hot on the heels of Warner winning the 2017 Allan Border Medal, his second in succession.

And to underline the 2015 World Cup winner's dominance in the 50-over format, Mitchell Starc continued his charge back to the No.1 spot for bowlers by jumping two spots up to second while Josh Hazlewood also scored a career-best ranking of fifth.

Warner's career-best score of 179 at Adelaide on Australia Day saw him amass 367 runs at 73.4 in the five-match VB ODI Series against Pakistan that concluded with back-to-back hundreds in Sydney and Adelaide.

Warner continues SCG love affair with super 130

Warner has been prolific in white-ball cricket, scoring six centuries in his past 11 ODIs, and setting a new Australian record for the most tons in a calendar year with seven in 2016.

Warner sits out of Australia's next white-ball assignment, the three-match Qantas Tour of New Zealand to defend the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, to focus on the looming Test series in India, but also has the mid-year Champions Trophy tournament in his sights.

"It is a huge year for one-day cricket with the ICC Champions Trophy later this year and I am hoping I can take my good form into that tournament and help Australia lift the trophy for the third time," Warner said in an ICC statement.

"It is always a great honour and very nice to receive these accolades but from my perspective my job is to put our team into winning positions and I have been fortunate that I have been able to do that lately."

Head's maiden ODI century in full

Warner leapfrogged South Africa great AB de Villiers, who returned to international action this weekend after a lengthy lay-off with an elbow injury, and now holds a 19-point lead with a tally of 880 points.

Warner's opening partner in Adelaide, local hero Travis Head, has skyrocketed 42 spots to reach 38th in the ICC rankings helped by his maiden ODI ton in front of his home fans.

Pakistan's Adelaide centurion Babar Azam has broken into the top 10 for the first time to gain five spots and sit in 10th position, while Sharjeel Khan's three fifties in the series lifted him 35 slots to be ranked 53rd.

Starc sat out of Australia's trip to the WACA for the third ODI, but his nine wickets in four matches - including 4-42 in Adelaide - was enough to see him jump two spots back into outright second.

Scintillating Starc snares four in Adelaide

Hazlewood's seven wickets in the series against Pakistan saw him jump up five spots to a new career-best of fifth.

New Zealand's Trent Boult remains the No.1 ranked bowler.


ICC ODI batsman rankings


1 David Warner (Aus) 880 points
2 AB de Villiers (SA) 861
3 Virat Kohli (Ind) 852
4 Quinton de Kock (SA) 779
5 Kane Williamson (NZ) 770
6 Joe Root (Eng) 753
7 Hashim Amla (SA) 748
8 Steve Smith (Aus) 740
9 Martin Guptill (NZ) 735
10 Babar Azam (Pak) 733


ICC ODI bowler rankings


1 Trent Boult (NZ) 718 points
2 Mitchell Starc (Aus) 713
3 Imran Tahir (SA) 712
4 Sunil Narine (WI) 711
5 Josh Hazlewood (Aus) 672
6 Shakib al Hasan (Ban) 643
7 Matt Henry (NZ ) 641
8 Kagiso Rabada (SA) 628
9 Adil Rashid (Eng) 628
10 Mohammad Nabi (Afg) 619