Dhoni’s team needs a clean sweep while the visitors will get there with a 5-2 series victory
Having already gone into second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Cham
pionship following its 2-0 series win over Australia , India ’s one-day team now has the opportunity to do the same in the shorter format of the game.Fresh from regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team have little time to celebrate as they embark on a seven-match ODI series against England , beginning in Rajkot on Friday. An incentive will surely come in the knowledge that they can make good progress up the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table and will go into second if they win all seven matches in the series.
Currently in fifth place on 113 ratings points, India will gain seven points for a clean sweep of the series, taking it to 120 points, which is one more than the team currently in second place, South Africa .
If India wins the series 4-3 it will move above New Zealand into fourth place and a series win of 5-2 or 6-1 will ensure it overtakes Kevin Pietersen’s team and into third position on the table.
Meanwhile, England also has the chance to go above the Proteas into second place in the ICC ODI Championship and will do so if it wins the series 5-2 or better. But if it was to lose by the same margin or worse it would fall below the Black Caps into sixth position.
Neither India nor England can catch leader Australia , which is currently 12 ratings points clear of its nearest rival. However, a clean sweep for Pietersen’s team would cut that lead to just six.
Dhoni will be out to defend his position at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen. Australia ’s Mike Hussey is not far behind in second place so Dhoni will have to put in some strong performances to avoid slipping back down the order.
The next highest batsman on show during the series will be Pietersen in seventh position. The England captain is very close behind the West Indies ’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul in sixth place and could even be targeting a top five position before the tour is out.
Just behind Pietersen is India legend Sachin Tendulkar in eighth position but he has been rested for the first three ODIs so he may slip a place or two as a result.
The only other batsman from either side in the top 20 is Yuvraj Singh in 17th position. Having been watching his colleagues in India ’s Test team experience so much success of late, Yuvraj will be anxious to get in on the act and with that part of the rankings particularly tightly packed, there will be ample opportunity for the 26-year-old to move up a few places in the pecking order.
On the bowling front England has two – Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff – in the top 10 while India only has one – Zaheer Khan – in the top 20. Broad had a good series against South Africa during the English summer and is currently enjoying fifth place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers.
The 22-year-old, who was shortlisted for the Emerging Player of the Year 2008 at the LG ICC Awards in September, will now have his eye on Kyle Mills of New Zealand in fourth and even Australia’s Mitchell Johnson in third spot provided, of course, he recovers in time from the knee injury which kept him out of the warm-up defeat against a Mumbai Cricket Association XI on Tuesday.
Flintoff is back in eighth place but only just behind the Sri Lanka pair of Chaminda Vaas in seventh and Muttiah Muralidaran in sixth position. He is also lying second in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders and could well go above Jacob Oram into top spot with a successful series in India .
Zaheer will also be seeking to move up the bowling list and will be expected to continue to shoulder much of the responsibility, especially considering the player of the series from the Test matches against Australia Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the first ODI with an ankle injury.
Upcoming fixtures:
14 Nov – India v England (ODI), Rajkot
17 Nov – India v England (ODI), Indore
20 Nov – India v England (ODI), Kanpur
23 Nov – India v England (ODI), Bangalore
26 Nov – India v England (ODI), Cuttack
29 Nov – India v England (ODI), Guwahati
2 Dec – India v England (ODI), New Delhi
Details of how the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table could be affected by other upcoming ODI series will be announced in due course.
Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table (as of 12 November, before the start of India v England ODI series)
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 131
2 South Africa 119
3 England 116
4 New Zealand 113
5 India 113
6 Pakistan 110
7 Sri Lanka 105
8 West Indies 95
9 Bangladesh 47
10 Ireland 19
11 Zimbabwe 15
12 Kenya 11
ICC One-Day Rankings (as of 12 November)
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Points Avge HS Rating
1 MS Dhoni Ind 793 47.41 806 v WI at Kingston 2006
2 Mike Hussey Aus 776 57.13 863 v NZ at Perth 2007
3 Graeme Smith SA 757 40.69 792 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
4 Ricky Ponting Aus 740 43.24 832 v NZ at Hobart 2007
5 Mohd Yousuf Pak 738 43.19 777 v SA at Rawalpindi 2003
6 S.Chanderpaul WI 733 40.49 754 v SA at Durban 1999
7 Kevin Pietersen Eng 730 47.83 834 v Aus at Antigua 2007
8 Sachin Tendulkar Ind 724 44.33 887 v Zim at Sharjah 1998
9 Andrew Symonds Aus 719 40.34 778 v Ind at Nagpur 2007
10 Matthew Hayden Aus 711 43.80 854 v Ind at Centurion 2003
11 Chris Gayle WI 700 39.38 804 v Aus at Mumbai 2006
12 Herschelle Gibbs SA 689 36.18 750 v SL at Durban 2003
13 K. Sangakkara SL 680 35.66 760 v Ind at Rajkot 2007
14 Michael Clarke Aus 677 42.46 756 v SL at Melbourne 2008
15 Shoaib Malik Pak 676 35.75 685 v Ind at Lahore 2006
16 Sanath Jayasuriya SL 675 32.69 838 v Ban at Pietermaritzburg 2003
17= Yuvraj Singh Ind 673 35.91 739 v WI at Port-of-Spain 2006
AB de Villiers SA 673 35.57 733 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
19 Jacques Kallis SA 672 45.24 816 v WI at Johannesburg 2004
20 R.Sarwan WI 667 43.87 798 v Ind at St Kitts 2006
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Points Avge Economy HS Rating Ranking
1 Nathan Bracken Aus 755 21.87 4.33 806 v SL at St George's 2007
2 Daniel Vettori NZ 733 32.05 4.17 790 v Eng at Christchurch 2008
3 Mitchell Johnson Aus 707 23.46 4.72 726 v Ban at Darwin 2008
4 Kyle Mills NZ 697! 26.00 4.63 697 v Ban at Chittagong 2008
5 Stuart Broad Eng 684* 26.21 4.77 701 v SA at Trent Bridge 2008
6 M.Muralidaran SL 674 23.03 3.88 913 v NZ at Sharjah 2002
7 Chaminda Vaas SL 672 27.54 4.18 861 v SA at Colombo (RPS) 2004
8 Andrew Flintoff Eng 668 23.99 4.35 755 v Ban at Dhaka 2003
9 Jacob Oram NZ 664 30.14 4.39 768 v Aus at The Oval 2004
10 Brett Lee Aus 657 22.96 4.71 853 v SA at Melbourne 2006
11 Jerome Taylor WI 656 27.04 4.67 688 v SA at Cape Town 2008
12 Shahid Afridi Pak 654 34.90 4.63 685 v Ind at Dhaka 2008
13 Andre Nel SA 645 27.68 4.63 685 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
14 Zaheer Khan Ind 637 28.82 4.84 700 v SA at Dhaka 2003
15= Daren Powell WI 632 32.18 4.63 686 v Aus at St George's 2008
Iftikhar Anjum Pak 632! 32.49 4.87 632 v Ban at Karachi 2008
Stuart Clark Aus 632*! 27.82 4.90 632 v Ban at Darwin 2008
18 Brad Hogg Aus 611 26.84 4.52 687 v Ind at Nagpur 2007
19 Sohail Tanvir Pak 610* 28.11 4.92 619 v SL at Karachi 2008
20 F. Maharoof SL 609 24.39 4.65 671 v Eng at Dambulla 2007
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points HS Rating
1 Jacob Oram NZ 383! 383 v Ban at Chittagong 2008
2 Andrew Flintoff Eng 375 544 v SL at The Rose Bowl 2004
3 Shoaib Malik Pak 349 402 v WI at Brisbane 2005
4= Jacques Kallis SA 331 505 v WI at Bridgetown 2001
Shahid Afridi Pak 331 360 v Ind at Dhaka 2008
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