India and England both have chance to go second in Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship

Dhoni’s team needs a clean sweep while the visitors will get there with a 5-2 series victory

Having already gone into second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship following its 2-0 series win over Australia, India’s one-day team now has the opportunity to do the same in the shorter format of the game.

Fresh from regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team have little time to celebrate as they embark on a seven-match ODI series against England, beginning in Rajkot on Friday. An incentive will surely come in the knowledge that they can make good progress up the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table and will go into second if they win all seven matches in the series.

Currently in fifth place on 113 ratings points, India will gain seven points for a clean sweep of the series, taking it to 120 points, which is one more than the team currently in second place, South Africa.

If India wins the series 4-3 it will move above New Zealand into fourth place and a series win of 5-2 or 6-1 will ensure it overtakes Kevin Pietersen’s team and into third position on the table.

Meanwhile, England also has the chance to go above the Proteas into second place in the ICC ODI Championship and will do so if it wins the series 5-2 or better. But if it was to lose by the same margin or worse it would fall below the Black Caps into sixth position.

Neither India nor England can catch leader Australia, which is currently 12 ratings points clear of its nearest rival. However, a clean sweep for Pietersen’s team would cut that lead to just six.

Dhoni will be out to defend his position at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen. Australia’s Mike Hussey is not far behind in second place so Dhoni will have to put in some strong performances to avoid slipping back down the order.

The next highest batsman on show during the series will be Pietersen in seventh position. The England captain is very close behind the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul in sixth place and could even be targeting a top five position before the tour is out.

Just behind Pietersen is India legend Sachin Tendulkar in eighth position but he has been rested for the first three ODIs so he may slip a place or two as a result.

The only other batsman from either side in the top 20 is Yuvraj Singh in 17th position. Having been watching his colleagues in India’s Test team experience so much success of late, Yuvraj will be anxious to get in on the act and with that part of the rankings particularly tightly packed, there will be ample opportunity for the 26-year-old to move up a few places in the pecking order.

On the bowling front England has two – Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff – in the top 10 while India only has one – Zaheer Khan – in the top 20. Broad had a good series against South Africa during the English summer and is currently enjoying fifth place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers.

The 22-year-old, who was shortlisted for the Emerging Player of the Year 2008 at the LG ICC Awards in September, will now have his eye on Kyle Mills of New Zealand in fourth and even Australia’s Mitchell Johnson in third spot provided, of course, he recovers in time from the knee injury which kept him out of the warm-up defeat against a Mumbai Cricket Association XI on Tuesday.

Flintoff is back in eighth place but only just behind the Sri Lanka pair of Chaminda Vaas in seventh and Muttiah Muralidaran in sixth position. He is also lying second in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders and could well go above Jacob Oram into top spot with a successful series in India.

Zaheer will also be seeking to move up the bowling list and will be expected to continue to shoulder much of the responsibility, especially considering the player of the series from the Test matches against Australia Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the first ODI with an ankle injury.

Upcoming fixtures:

14 Nov – India v England (ODI), Rajkot

17 Nov – India v England (ODI), Indore

20 Nov – India v England (ODI), Kanpur

23 Nov – India v England (ODI), Bangalore

26 Nov – India v England (ODI), Cuttack

29 Nov – India v England (ODI), Guwahati

2 Dec – India v England (ODI), New Delhi

Details of how the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table could be affected by other upcoming ODI series will be announced in due course.

Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table (as of 12 November, before the start of India v England ODI series)

(Developed by David Kendix)

For more information and the full rankings go to www.iccreliancerankings.com.