TRACK RECORD KOHLI RETAINS TOP RANKING IN BATTING
FRESH START Live on TV West Indies vs India on Ten 1 HD @ 6.30 PM to the senior players of the side.
With Jason Holder’s men just about managing to draw the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan 1-1, there is no doubt that the current Indian team are a few notches ahead in terms of quality.
Even Kohli knows that well and with BCCI top brass backing him on the Kumble issue, the margin for error is very little for the Indian captain.
A 5-0 whitewash is something that is expected against a side that has a cumulative ODI experience of 213 matches between 13 players with skipper Holder as the most-capped player with 58 matches to his name.
Compare it to a whopping 776 matches collectively between Yuvraj Singh (301), MS Dhoni (291) and Virat Kohli (184), the stark contrast between the two sides is so very distinct.
For India, this series is also an ideal platform to test the team’s bench strength.
With Jasprit Bumrah being rested for the series, it will be an ideal opportunity for the captain to check out Mohammed Shami, who did not get a game during the Champions Trophy.
The pacer has not played any official ODI since the 2015 World Cup semifinal post which he had multiple surgeries and played a few Test matches only.
Dubai, June 22: Virat Kohli retained the top spot among batsmen while India were placed third among ODI teams in the latest ICC Rankings issued on Thursday.
Kohli leads South Africa’s AB de Villiers by four points and he will aim to consolidate his number-one batting position and also help India reclaim the number-two ranking when he captains his side in the five-ODI series against the West Indies, starting on Friday.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were at joint 10th in the list of batsmen while there were no Indians among top-10 bowlers and top-5 allrounders.
India (116 points) can leapfrog second-placed Australia (117 points) by a fraction of a point if the Kohli-led side win all the five matches of the ODI series against the West Indies.
In contrast, if the West Indies win two matches in the series, then India will drop behind England in fourth place on 112 points. Victories in two matches will also lift the West Indies from 77 points to 81 points, thus, narrowing the gap with eighthranked Sri Lanka to 12 points.