Kohli remains steady at No.2

Virat Kohli; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer who currently captains the Indian team in Test cricket and is its vice-captain in limited-overs formats. A right-handed batsman often rated as one of the best batsmen in the world. 

Kohli was ranked eighth in ESPN’s list of world’s most famous athletes in 2016. He plays for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and has been the team’s captain since 2013. Opener Shikhar Dhawan maintained his eighth position.

Born and raised in Delhi, Kohli represented the city’s cricket team at various age-group levels before making his first-class debut in 2006. He captained India Under-19s to victory at the 2008 Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, and a few months later, made his ODI debut for India against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. Initially having played as a reserve batsman in the Indian team, he soon established himself as a regular in the ODI middle-order. 

England batsman Joe Root has surged into the top five of rankings for the first time after a stellar performance against Pakistan, which earned him the player of the series award.

The 25-year-old scored 274 runs in the series, which helped him leapfrog New Zealand’s duo of Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill as well as India batsman Rohit Sharma into fourth position in the latest player rankings.

During the series, the Yorkshireman also achieved a career-best rating of 776 points, which he had attained after the third ODI at Trent Bridge in which he scored 85. Root is one of the four England batsmen to make upward movement following a 4-1 series win over Pakistan.

Alex Hales has risen four places to reach 20th spot after aggregating 223 runs in the series, including a belligerent 171 in the third ODI, captain Eoin Morgan has gained four places and is now in 24th spot, while Jason Roy’s series contribution of 181 runs have helped him rise 10 places to share 35th spot with Dinesh Chandimal, who himself has moved up 15 places following a good series with the bat against Australia.

The good news for Pakistan was the movement of its captain Azhar Ali and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.

Azhar’s 208 runs in the series has seen him move up 15 places to 33rd rank, while Sarfraz, who was the highest run-getter in the series from either side with 300 runs, has moved up 21 places to 39th position.

Sarfraz had a productive series with the bat when he scored 55, 105, 38, 12 and 90 in the series.

Azhar and Sarfraz are the only two Pakistan batsmen, who featured in the recent series against England, to figure inside the top 50. The next highest Pakistan batsman is Shoaib Malik in 67th spot.

Australia, which scripted a similar 4-1 series win over Sri Lanka, saw Aaron Finch and George Bailey move up two and three places, respectively. Finch is now in 15th position while Bailey claims 17th spot.

Bailey finished the series as the most successful batsman with 270 runs, which later earned him the player of the series award, 34 runs more than Chandimal who ended up in 35th spot after rising 15 places.

AB de Villiers of South Africa is the number-one ranked ODI batsman, and he is followed by India s Virat Kohli and team-mate Hashim Amla, in second and third positions, respectively. In the players rankings for bowlers, Australia pacers Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner and John Hastings have made significant gains in Sri Lanka with their perfomance.