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The last time Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli played any form of international cricket was the final of the Champions Trophy against New Zealand on March 9. (File Photo)India veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are back in the International Cricket Council’s ODI rankings after a brief disappearance earlier on Wednesday. The pair had disappeared from the standings in the latest update in which Pakistan’s Babar Azam took the second spot that Rohit wasn occupying and New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell replaced Kohli at fourth spot.
While the ICC’s statement on the rankings, which they had posted on X at 1.33pm IST, didn’t make a mention about the pair being dropped, it had caused a flurry on social media. Rohit and Kohli were then back in the rankings a few hours later and the ICC is yet to say anything about the sequence of events. Rohit remains in second spot, thus pushing Babar back down to third place, while Kohli has returned to fourth and pushed Mitchell back down to fifth.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were briefly absent from the ODI rankings. (ICC screenshot)
The 38-year-old Rohit and 36-year-old Kohli have both retired from T20Is and Test cricket, making ODIs the only format of international cricket that they are still active in. With the frequency of ODI matches nosediving in recent years, it has led to a lot of speculation over whether they still remain in Indian selectors’ plans going into the swing of games for the 2027 World Cup.
Rohit remains India’s captain in ODIs. He had retired from Tests during the 2025 IPL and Kohli did the same towards the end of the season. Both players retired from T20Is after powering India to victory in the T20 World Cup last year. The last time they played any form of international cricket was the final of the Champions Trophy against New Zealand on March 9, which India won by four wickets, Rohit was declared player of the match for his 76 off 83 balls.
India wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has slipped to third place, with South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj returning to the top spot. Maharaj regained the top position after helping his team beat Australia by 98 runs in the first ODI of their three-match series in Cairns. The 35-year-old left-arm spinner, who was named Player of the Match after grabbing five for 33, overtook Kuldeep and Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana to the top spot, which he had earlier held briefly in November and December 2023.
In the men’s batting rankings, Shubman Gill continues to top the list with 784 points. He is one of four Indians in the top 10 of the rankings, with Shreyas Iyer being the other Indian apart from Rohit and Kohli. Iyer sits at sixth place.
West Indies captain Shai Hope is up two places to ninth position after scoring 120 not out in the final ODI against Pakistan while Aiden Markram (up four places to 21st), Temba Bavuma (up five places to 23rd) and Mitchell Marsh (up six places to 48th) are the others to progress.
In the men’s T20I rankings, India’s Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma remained on the top two places with skipper Suryakumar Yadav in the sixth spot and Yashasvi Jaiswal in 10th position. South Africa’s Dewald Brevis continues his upward movement, gaining nine spots to reach 12th position while Australians Marsh and Glenn Maxwell have progressed four and 10 spots, respectively, to reach 25th and 30th positions.
(With PTI inputs)
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