India Drop in ODI Rankings, England New Leaders

The England cricket team have surpassed India at the top of the International Cricket Council ODI rankings. This was despite the fact that they have not played for almost two months.

According to the latest rankings update, the 2014-15 season was excluded from the calculations.

Under captain Eoin Morgan and coach Trevor Bayliss, England have been on a comeback arc and have won 41 of 63 matches.

This is the first time England have topped the rankings since the 2013 season.

The England team have won the last 6 ODI series and even reached the semi-finals of the 2017 Champions Trophy. Also, working in their favour is the fact that they are one of the favourites for the 2019 World Cup, mostly because it is on home soil.

In the aftermath of an early exit from the 2015 World Cup, England adopted a more offensive approach with the bat. Since June 2015, they have posted 350+ scores, at least nine times.

On the Test front, they had an unsuccessful winter, but they turned things around by beating Australia 4-1 and New Zealand 3-2.

England are fifth in the Test rankings and in the Twenty20 standings. India and Pakistan retaining the number one spot in Tests and Twenty20 respectively.

Skipper Eoin Morgan said that their rise in the ODI rankings is a result of a drastic change in the team.

“It’s an acknowledgement of the cricket that we’ve played over the last two or three years,” said Morgan. “One thing for us was the change in the style that we played in previous years and the positive, aggressive nature that we wanted to take to our game – and the learning nature that goes with it, the desire to continually improve.

“To make such a significant jump without consequence we had to make drastic changes.

“So selecting a nearly-new team – I think there were five guys in the 2015 World Cup that continued to play that summer – and identifying players who could play the way we thought we could take the game forward was the priority.