Ireland’s Harry Tector displaces Virat Kohli, Quinton de Kock to become ICC top-10 batter, Shubman Gill stays put on 5th spot

Young Ireland cricketer Harry Tector has made it to the top-10 in the latest ICC men’s ODI batting rankings following his career-best 140 in the second match of the 50-over series against Bangladesh in Chelmsford. The 23-year-old ended the series as the leading run-getter with 206 runs from three games and is placed seventh, having displaced India’s Virat Kohli and South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who have dropped one place each to eighth and ninth respectively.

Young India top-order batter Shubman Gill continues to hold the No. 5 position in the rankings, which is led by Pakistan’s Babar Azam.

Tector seventh place on the rankings, following a jump of 72 rating points, is the best by an Ireland batter.

The right-handed batter’s new rating of 722 points is also the highest an Ireland male batter has ever achieved in ODI cricket.

Besides, Kohli and de Kock, Tector is also ahead of India all-format captain Rohit Sharma (10th), Australia’s Steve Smith (11th) and Jos Buttler (15th).

Former England skipper Eoin Morgan reached 712 points in 2019 but by that time he was playing for England. Among Irish players, the highest was Paul Stirling, who reached 697 points in June 2021.

Tector will get an opportunity to further improve his ranking when Ireland take part in the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June-July. “He’s (Tector) just got all the attributes to go on and be one of the greats of Irish cricket and I hope that we can help him on his way, and he continues to put in scores for us,” Ireland skipper Andy Balbirnie was quoted as saying by ICC.

“The more runs he gets for us, the better place we’re going to be.”