Kohli retains top ODI spot, Root shoots to No.2
Dubai, July 18: India skipper Virat Kohli held on to his No.1 spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI player rankings for batsmen, but had a new man just after him with England Test skipper Joe Root vaulting to the No.2 spot at the end of the three-match rubber.
Root struck two centuries -- 113 not out in the second game and 100 not out in the third, to average 216 in England's 2-1 triumph and jump four spots to the No.2 spot in the rankings.
According to an ICC release, Root's 818 ratings points, however, isn't the best in his career. The 819 he had after the Brisbane ODI against Australia earlier this year, when he followed up his 91 not out in Melbourne with 46 not, remains his best.
Kohli's India lost the series, but the captain was in good nick, registering scores of 75, 45 and 71 to total 191 runs at an average of 63.66. That not only helped him hold on to the top spot, but also gave him his career-best rating points: 911.
With Root moving up, other top batsmen had to make way. Pakistan's Babar Azam moved down one spot to No.3, the out-of-action David Warner slipped two spots to fifth, while Ross Taylor went down one position to No. 6. Rohit Sharma, however, stayed at No.4, with his 137 not out in the first ODI helping his cause.
Two wrist-spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Adil Rashid, also had memorable series.
Rashid, the England leg-spinner, had six wickets in the three games, and the 3/49 in the final fixture took him to a career-high 681 rating points.
There was no movement up the ladder for him, though, as he remained in the eighth spot.
There were no changes in the top five -- Jasprit Bumrah, Rashid Khan, Hasan Ali, Trent Boult and Josh Hazlewood -- but Kuldeep soared eight spots following his chart-topping nine wickets in the series to get to No.6.
The Indian left-armer ended the series with 684 rating points after having achieved a career-high earlier in the series following returns of 6/25 and 3/68.
Elsewhere, the Zimbabwe versus Pakistan ODI series is still on, but the high performers have started to rise up the table.
The stars for Pakistan in the first two ODIs have been Fakhar Zaman (177 runs) and Imam-ul-Haq (172 runs) with the bat and Usman Shinwari (6 wickets) with the ball.
While Zaman has moved up 14 positions to No.24 with a career-best 639 points -- joint with Alex Hales -- Imam, still only six ODIs old, is at No.94, a gain of an astounding 70 spots.
Shinwari, too, has gone up 66 spots to No.94 among the bowlers.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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