Australia: Tri-series starts from Sunday
Incidentally, the tri-series format returns to Australia for the first time in four years, with the same three sides-Australia, India and Sri Lanka- participating as in its last edition in 2008.
Number-one ranked and four-time former world champion Australia sits pretty on 130 ratings points, leading second-ranked current world champion India by 14 ratings points with fourth-ranked 1996 world champion Sri Lanka another five ratings points behind.
And as the rankings system is weighted to reflect this difference, Sri Lanka could earn significant number of points if it is successful in the series. In contrast, Australia and India can lose points if they don't win bulk of their matches.
To explain further, if Australia beats India in the opener on Sunday, it will earn one ratings point while India will drop one ratings point. However, if the result is reversed, then Australia will lose two ratings points whereas India will gain one ratings point.
Similarly, if India loses to Australia and then to Sri Lanka, Australia will rise to 131 ratings points and Sri Lanka will move to 113 ratings points whereas India will slip to third position at 115 ratings points.
On the other hand, if India lives up to its reputation of being world champions and manages to win all its matches, it could go up on the table.
With a maximum of 15 matches to be played in the series with each side guaranteed at least eight matches, there will be regular changes on the Championship table with the final shape of the table only emerging after 8 March when the series in Australia ends. By that time, Pakistan-England and New Zealand-South Africa ODI series would have also finished.
Meanwhile, in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, India's Virat Kohli will start off as the highest-ranked batsman in the series in third place.
Kohli, who showed good form in the Test series against Australia when he ended up as his side's leading run-getter with 300 runs, trails South Africa's ODI captain AB De Villiers (at second place) by 45 ratings points while Hashim Amla sits on top, another 26 rating points ahead. Amla and de Villiers will feature in the three-match ODI series in New Zealand from 25 February to 3 March.
The other batsmen in the series inside the top10 include India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (sixth), Kumar Sangakkara (seventh), Mike Hussey (eighth) and Michael Clarke (ninth). And depending on how these batsmen perform over the next few weeks, there could be changes in the top-half of the batting chart.
In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga is the highest-ranked bowler in the series in 10th position. India's Ravindra Jadeja and Brett Lee of Australia are the highest-ranked bowlers of their sides in 13th and 15th positions, respectively.
Forthcoming ODIs:
New Zealand v Zimbabwe in New Zealand
6 Feb - New Zealand v Zimbabwe, second ODI, Whangarei
9 Feb - New Zealand v Zimbabwe, third ODI, Napier
Three-nation series in Australia
5 Feb - Australia v India (d/n), Melbourne
8 Feb - India v Sri Lanka (d/n), Perth
10 Feb - Australia v Sri Lanka (d/n), Perth
12 Feb - Australia v India (d/n), Adelaide
14 Feb - India v Sri Lanka (d/n), Adelaide
17 Feb - Australia, Sri Lanka (d/n), Sydney
19 Feb - Australia v India (d/n), Brisbane
21 Feb - India v Sri Lanka (d/n), Brisbane
24 Feb - Australia v Sri Lanka (d/n), Hobart
26 Feb - Australia v India (d/n), Sydney
28 Feb - India v Sri Lanka (d/n), Hobart
2 March - Australia v Sri Lanka (d/n), Melbourne
4 March - First final (d/n), Brisbane
6 March - Second final (d/n), Adelaide
8 March - Third final (d/n), Adelaide (if required)
Reliance ICC ODI Championship (as of 4 January, after the first ODI between New Zealand and Zimbabwe and before the start of three-nation series in Australia)
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 130
2 India 117
3 South Africa 116
4 Sri Lanka 111
5 Pakistan 109
6 England 106
7 New Zealand 87
8 West Indies 79
9 Bangladesh 62
10 Zimbabwe 46
11 Ireland 41
12 Netherlands 15
13 Kenya 0
Reliance ICC ODI Rankings (Before the start of New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and three-nation series in Australia)
Batsmen (top 20)
Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating
1 Hashim Amla SA 854 56.35 886 v Ind at Centurion 2011
2 AB de Villiers SA 828! 47.56 828 v SL at Johannesburg 2012
3 Virat Kohli Ind 783 46.88 799 v Ban at Mirpur 2011
4 Jonathan Trott Eng 772* 51.37 781 v Ind at Mumbai 2011
5 MS Dhoni Ind 758 51.15 836 v Aus at Delhi 2009
6 Shane Watson Aus 757 43.15 773 v SL at Hambantota 2011
7 K.Sangakkara SL 745 37.96 758 v Aus at Hambantota 2011
8 Mike Hussey Aus 737 51.17 857 v NZ at Perth 2007
9 Michael Clarke Aus 715 45.35 750 v SL at Melbourne 2008
10 Umar Akmal Pak 702! 39.22 702 v Ban at Chittagong 2011
11 Jacques Kallis SA 701 45.55 817 v WI at Johannesburg 2004
12 Virender Sehwag Ind 686 35.66 774 v NZ at Auckland 2003
13 Ricky Ponting Aus 673 42.63 829 v NZ at Hobart 2007
14 T.Dilshan SL 670 34.68 765 v NZ at Colombo (RPS) 2011
15 Ross Taylor NZ 667 37.47 693 v Aus at Adelaide 2009
16 Brendan Taylor Zim 654! 34.65 654 v NZ at Bulawayo 2011
17= Graeme Smith SA 653 39.22 784 v Ind at Kolkata 2005
Gautam Gambhir Ind 653 40.36 722 v NZ at Vadodara 2010
19 R. ten Doeschate Net 652* 67.00 665 v Ire at Kolkata 2011
20 S.Tendulkar Ind 644 45.16 887 v Zim at Sharjah 1998
Selected batsmen
Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating
21 M.Jayawardena SL 642 33.31 738 v WI at Colombo (RPS) 2001
24 Martin Guptill NZ 636 38.06 639 v Zim at Harare 2011
30 Suresh Raina Ind 605 34.94 658 v SL at Bulawayo 2010
31 B.McCullum NZ 604 29.44 664 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2009
35 Upul Tharanga SL 580 33.93 663 v NZ at Napier 2006
36 Rohit Sharma Ind 578 34.80 582 v WI at Indore 2011
45 Angelo Mathews SL 556 31.82 598 v Aus at Hambantota 2011
54 Tatenda Taibu Zim 515 29.17 529 v Ban at Harare 2011
63 H.Masakadza Zim 490 27.47 566 v Ban at Mirpur 2009
65 D.Chandimal SL 488* 36.16 492 v SA at Kimberley 2012
71 Jacob Oram NZ 471 24.39 583 v Ban at Mirpur 2008
73 E.Chigumbura Zim 467 23.64 554 v SA at Bulawayo 2007
76 David Hussey Aus 461* 31.33 468 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2011
79 Ravindra Jadeja Ind 456* 31.45 459 v WI at Visakhapatnam 2011
81 T.Samaraweera SL 446* 27.80 527 v Ind at Mirpur 2010
83 Kane Williamson NZ 443*! 38.83 443 v Zim at Bulawayo 2011
91 Daniel Vettori NZ 430 17.39 465 v Aus at Auckland 2010
93 Parthiv Patel Ind 424* 24.40 516 v Eng at Durham 2011
Bowlers (top 20)
Rank Player Team Pts Avge Econ HS Rating
1 Saeed Ajmal Pak 736! 24.65 4.09 736 v Ban at Chittagong 2011
2 M.Hafeez Pak 717! 31.14 4.13 717 v Ban at Chittagong 2011
3 L.Tsotsobe SA 693* 20.05 4.62 703 v SL at Kimberley 2012
4 Daniel Vettori NZ 690 31.48 4.12 788 v Eng at Durham 2008
5 Graeme Swann Eng 689 25.43 4.49 735 v Ind at Hyderabad 2011
6 Mitchell Johnson Aus 688 25.22 4.85 724 v Ban at Darwin 2008
7 Morne Morkel SA 680 24.04 4.87 717 v SL at East London 2012
8 S .Al Hasan Ban 662 28.68 4.26 717 v Zim at Chittagong 2009
9 Doug Bollinger Aus 660* 23.90 4.57 676 v Eng at Hobart 2011
10 Lasith Malinga SL 648 24.98 4.94 674 v Ban at Colombo (RPS) 2007
11 Shahid Afridi Pak 644 33.27 4.60 673 v Ban at Mirpur 2011
12 Ray Price Zim 635 35.07 3.85 722 v WI at Guyana 2010
13 Ravindra Jadeja Ind 627 33.96 4.89 630 v WI at Indore 2011
14 Jacob Oram NZ 624 29.02 4.35 768 v Aus at The Oval 2004
15= Brett Lee Aus 621 22.89 4.70 852 v SA at Melbourne 2006
Dale Steyn SA 621 28.12 5.15 666 v Ind at Nagpur 2011
17 Kyle Mills NZ 620 26.18 4.71 722 v Aus at Melbourne 2009
18 James Anderson Eng 617 30.89 5.04 687 v Ban at Dhaka 2003
19= Ravi Rampaul WI 614 29.53 5.02 628 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2011
R. Ashwin Ind 614* 27.07 4.77 617 v WI at Indore 2011
Selected bowlers
Rank Player Team Pts Avge Econ HS Rating
24 Tim Southee NZ 597 30.74 5.23 617 v Can at Mumbai 2011
30 Praveen Kumar Ind 569 34.84 5.03 651 v NZ at Dambulla 2010
32 Zaheer Khan Ind 565 28.84 4.91 700 v SA at Dhaka 2003
34 N.Kulasekara SL 541 33.19 4.62 727 v NZ at Colombo (RPS) 2009
35 Prosper Utseya Zim 535 46.58 4.24 663 v Ban at Harare 2006
42 Xavier Doherty Aus 501*! 31.00 4.52 501 v SA at Durban 2011
51 Thisara Perera SL 479* 24.43 5.21 507 v Pak at Sharjah 2011
63 N. McCullum NZ 452* 45.90 4.83 477 v SA at Mirpur 2011
70 Angelo Mathews SL 444* 33.62 4.67 515 v Ind at Dambulla 2010
74 Graeme Cremer Zim 434 30.20 4.69 479 v Ire at Harare 2010
90 Vinay Kumar Ind 400* 36.31 5.76 410 v WI at Ahmedabad 2011
99 E.Chigumbura Zim 380 39.72 5.90 460 v Ban at Mirpur 2009
100 T.Dilshan SL 379 44.53 4.81 471 v Eng at Old Trafford 2006
All-rounders (top two)
Rank (Change) Player Team Points Highest Ranking
1 S. Al Hasan Ban 420 453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009
2 M. Hafeez Pak 407! 407 v Ban at Chittagong 2011
Selected
Rank Player Team Points Highest Ranking
7 Daniel Vettori NZ 297 353 v Aus at Auckland 2010
9 Ravindra Jadeja Ind 286*/ 287 v WI at Indore 2011
11 T.Dilshan SL 254 319 v Ind at Mumbai 2011
35 Michael Clarke Aus 184 305 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2009
36 Prosper Utseya Zim 179 202 v Ban at Harare 2011 (IBNS -Posted on / )
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