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Daryl Mitchell of New Zealand raises his bat after scoring a hundred during the 3rd ODI match between India and New Zealand at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore, India, on January 18, 2026.
Following his stupendous show against India in the ODI series, New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell displaced Indian superstar Virat Kohli in the latest ICC ODI rankings for batters on Wednesday.
Mitchell was on a roll in the series against India scoring 352 runs in the three-game series with two hundreds and a fifty. His series total was the most ever by a New Zealander in a three-match ODI series and the third-most of all time, behind only Pakistan’s Babar Azam (360 against the West Indies in 2016) and India’s Shubman Gill (360 against New Zealand in 2023).
Mitchell’s super show meant that New Zealand won the series 1-2 to end a 37-year-wait and recorded their first-ever series win in the ODI format on the Indian soil.
“With 845 ranking points, he aptly replaces Kohli (795 points) who drops to No.2 on the list in the latest rankings release. The pair sit well clear of a chasing pack that includes Ibrahim Zadran, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Babar Azam,” the ICC said in a statement.
It is the second time Mitchell has held the No.1 ranking in ODI cricket, but his previous spell at the top only lasted three days last November before he was overtaken by Rohit. In 54 innings, Mitchell is yet to record an ODI duck, which is the second-longest all-time streak, behind only Kepler Wessels, who was astonishingly never removed for naught across his 105 ODI innings between 1983 and 1994.
Both Indian batters Kohli and Rohit Sharma went down one spots at second and fourth respectively. Despite scoring 124 in the final game, Kohli couldn’t take India to the finish line in the decider.
While Kohli had good series scoring 240 runs with a fifty and a century after his good show against South Africa, Rohit faltered in the series with just 61 runs from three games. His scores read 26, 24 and 11.
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India will play five T20Is against New Zealand starting today in build-up to the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup next month.
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