King Kohli, Hitman & Bumrah clinch top spots in ICC ODI rankings after WI series win

Soon after a nail-biting victory in the third ODI against West Indies to seal the final ODI series of the year, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday, December 23, released its updated ODI rankings. Indian skipper Virat Kohli who scored a magnificent 85 run knock in the final ODI on Sunday, topped the rankings with 887 points. Kohli's deputy in the limited-overs, Rohit Sharma followed the skipper on the second position with 873 points as he won the player of the series awarded after notching up 258 runs in the three matches. After an eventful series against India, Shai Hope who notched up 222 runs also broke into the top 10 and secured the 9th position with 782 points. 

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Bumrah on top of ICC Rankings

India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah topped the ICC bowler rankings with 785 points despite remaining out of the game due to injury. Bumrah, who is eyeing a return to the squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka series, is followed by New Zealand's Trent Boult by 740 points who is also determined to play the Boxing Day Test against Australia after being ruled out of the first test due to injury. Afghanistan's ace spinner, Mujeeb Ur Rahman ranks third on the list with 707 points. England all-rounder Ben Stokes topped the ICC All-Rounder rankings with 319 points. 

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Rohit Sharma ends year on high note

India's ace opener, Rohit Sharma on Sunday, added another feather to his cap as he ended the year by scoring the most number of runs by an opener in a calendar year. The limited-overs Vice-Captain surpassed Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya and India's Virender Sehwag who had scored 2387 runs and 2355 runs in a single year, respectively. Sharma ended the year with 2442 runs at an average of 53.08 in just 47 innings.

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India seal series against WI 2-1

Virat Kohli anchored a tricky chase before Shardul Thakur played the most defining cameo of his short career to power India to a series-winning four-wicket victory over the West Indies in the third ODI in Cuttack on Sunday. India's top three, Rohit Sharma (63), KL Rahul (77) and Virat Kohli (85), fired in unison in a 316-run chase but it got slippery in the end when the Indian captain left the scene with 30 required off 23 balls. It was then that Thakur, in the company of a composed Ravindra Jadeja, smashed 17 runs off six balls with the help of a six and four off Sheldon Cottrell to seal the issue in his team's favour with eight balls to spare.

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