NEW DELHI: In a surprising turn of events that shook the cricketing world, India's ODI captain Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli have vanished from the latest ODI rankings released on Tuesday, August 19. Both players last represented India in March, during the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand.
In last week's update, Rohit held the No. 2 spot with 756 points, while Kohli was fourth with 736 points. In the latest rankings, Shubman Gill leads the ODI batters with 784 rating points, followed by Shreyas Iyer at sixth with 704 points. KL Rahul is the only other Indian in the top 20, positioned 13th with 638 points.
Interestingly, Babar Azam, who had dropped to third last week after Rohit moved up to second, has now fallen behind Shubman Gill.
What ICC rule says
According to ICC ranking rules, a player can be removed from the top-100 if they haven't played a match within the qualifying period - 12–15 months for Tests and 9–12 months for ODIs and T20Is.
However, that's not the case with Rohit and Virat, as both played in the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand in March this year. Their removal from rankings has therefore raised several unanswered questions.
Alternatively, a player can be permanently removed from the rankings if they retire from a format or from international cricket entirely. For instance, when MS Dhoni retired from Tests in 2014, he was taken off the Test rankings but remained in the ODI rankings.
Both players retired from T20Is after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup and bid farewell to Test cricket in May this year.
