INDIA BATSMEN PROGRESS FOLLOWING SRI LANKA SERIES WIN

India’s hard-hitting batsman Virat Kohli has moved to second place in the Reliance ICC ODI Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen following India’s 5-0 victory over Sri Lanka in the series that finished in Ranchi on Sunday, while his team-mate Rohit Sharma has vaulted to 15th, as the reigning World Cup champion continues its preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
 
Kohli completed a series-highest score of 139 not out in the fifth ODI on Sunday, having earlier scored 66, 53 and 49, while Sharma rose spectacularly by 18 places after his world-record breaking innings of 264 in Kolkata, in what was the 27-year-old’s second ODI career double-century.
 
For Sri Lanka, Lahiru Thirimanne rose four places to 46th after scoring half-centuries in Kolkata and Ranchi (59 and 52 respectively).
 
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, meanwhile, has surged to the top of the Reliance ICC ODI Player Rankings for ODI All-rounders for the first time after accumulating 339 runs, including 139 not out and two half centuries (75 and 92 not out), to finish the series with an average of 113.00 with the bat. In doing so, he also moved up four places to a career high 10th place in the batting rankings. The Colombo star also chipped in with four wickets, and he now holds a nine-point advantage, on 420 points, over Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez in the all-rounder rankings.
 
In the ICC Players Rankings for ODI Bowlers, Mathews has moved up five places to 24th, while Ravichandran Ashwin climbed one place to 15th to be 21 points off a place in the top 10.