India’s Virat Kohli, who scored 84 runs in the semi-final match against Australia, is now ranked fourth among ICC ODI batsmen. In a group-stage encounter earlier, Kohli had struck an undefeated 100 against Pakistan. After his outstanding 177 against England, Afghanistan’s opening batsman Ibrahim Zadran moved up 13 spots to 10th place.
Azmatullah Omarzai of Afghanistan has surpassed his teammate Mohammad Nabi to take the top spot in the ODI all-rounders’ rankings with a strong showing in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Despite Afghanistan’s failure to get to the semi-finals, Omarzai’s performance was outstanding on his own.
With a match-winning 5/58 against England, he took seven wickets in three games. At a strike rate of 104.13 and an average of 42.00, Omarzai amassed 126 runs in his batting career.
His perfect all-around performance propelled him up two slots in the standings, putting him four points ahead of Nabi. In the ODI batting rankings, Omarzai too made significant progress, moving up 12 spots to 24th.
Babar Azam of Pakistan and Heinrich Klaasen of South Africa are next in line, but Shubman Gill remains at the top. To fifth position, Rohit Sharma dropped two spots.
To join Maheesh Theekshana and Keshav Maharaj in the top three bowling order, Matt Henry of New Zealand moved up three spots to third place. Making his injury comeback, Mohammed Shami rose three spots to 11th place.
Before the New Zealand-South Africa semi-final, Shami and Henry now hold the top two spots as the Champions Trophy’s leading wicket-takers, both with eight wickets taken.
In the meanwhile, following his outstanding effort against Australia, Virat Kohli gave a glimpse into his batting philosophy and passion.
“Dude, I just adore playing the game. Batting is something I simply like. Everything else kind of falls into place as long as the passion and joy of batting are present. You should not put your head down in a desperate situation. And simply keep trying to achieve the team’s goals. These kinds of results are what you’ll typically get,” Kohli told BCCI.
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