India opener Shubman Gill has moved up to the second position among batsmen in the latest ICC ODI player rankings on the back of his performance in the ongoing Asia Cup. India are yet to taste defeat in the Asia Cup and their success can be attributed to the stellar contributions of the batsmen, especially the top order which includes skipper Rohit Sharma, Gill and the talismanic Virat Kohli. Gill is not the only Indian to move up in the batsmen’s rankings, with Kohli moving up two places to eighth and Rohit moving up two places to ninth in the latest standings.
For the first time in more than four and a half years, three Indian batsmen feature in the top 10 of the latest rankings.
Gill already has two half-centuries to his name in the tournament, with a total of 154 runs.
His excellent returns in the current tournament have taken him to a career-best second position in the batsmen’s rankings. He is behind Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who is currently at the top.
According to the ICC standings, Gill has reduced the gap with Babar to a great extent, with the gap now reduced to just 103 rating points.
The Pakistan captain tops the batting charts with 863 rating points while Gill is currently placed second with 759 points.
One has to go back to early 2019 to find out the last time India had three players in the top-10 rankings for batsmen.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan joined Rohit and Kohli in the top-10 in January 2019.
Pakistan, who currently jointly top the ODI rankings with Australia, has three players in the top-10 of the batting charts.
However, Imam-ul-Haq has dropped one place to fifth and fellow opener Fakhar Zaman has slipped three places to 10th.
India’s spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who is currently in great form, has reached the seventh position in the bowling list with his nine wickets in the Asia Cup.
India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya has also moved up four places to sixth position in the list of all-rounders.