Bond back with a bang

Shane Bond’s successful return to ODI cricket has seen him shoot up the latest ICC Player Ratings to 10th position after successful bowling performances against Sri Lanka in the recent five match series.

Bond finished the series with nine wickets at an outstanding average of 17.77. Along with Bond, Daniel Vettori also sits inside the top ten in seventh place, even after what was a poor series for him with the ball in taking only one wicket at a cost of 167 runs. Other New Zealand bowlers of note in the ratings are Kyle Mills at 15th, Jacob Oram at 17th and Scott Styris at 30th.

New Zealand’s batting continues to be its primary problem however and this holds out in the player rankings with Stephen Fleming being the highest rated batsman at 27th. Peter Fulton comes into the ratings at 66th following his successful series with the bat.

The release of the latest ICC ODI Championship spells good news for the Kiwis in the series victory moving them up to the table to fourth position. The rankings hold more importance this year with the top sixth countries avoiding having to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy in India later this year.

ICC ODI Championship (after the New Zealand – Sri Lanka series)
Rank/Team Rating
1 Australia 135
2 South Africa 118
3 Pakistan 116
4 New Zealand 112
5 India 109
6 England 108
7 Sri Lanka 106
8 West Indies 90
9 Zimbabwe 44
10 Bangladesh 14

ICC ODI Batting Rankings

1 Ricky Ponting AUS
2 Adam Gilchrist AUS
3 Graeme Smith SA
4 Andrew Symonds AUS
5 Mohammad Yousuf PAK
6 Chris Gayle WI
7 Inzamam-ul-Haq PAK
8 Kumar Sangakkara SL
9 Michael Clarke AUS
10 Rahul Dravid IND

ICC ODI Bowling Rankings

1 Glenn McGrath AUS
2 Brett Lee AUS
3 Shaun Pollock SA
4 Muttiah Muralitharan SL
5 Naved-ul-Hasan PAK
6 Chaminda Vaas SL
7 Daniel Vettori NZ
8 Irfan Pathan IND
9 Makhaya Ntini SA
10 Shane Bond NZ