The International Cricket Council (ICC) Ranking is a method used to chalk out the best player in the world of cricket in all formats of the game. While originally the rankings were introduced for the Test cricket, it later was expanded to the other formats too.
The One Day International (ODI) rankings were introduced in the year 1998 and it has 3 different categories such as the batsman, bowlers and all-rounders, with obviously the teams ranking.
With the population of the T20 cricket really hitting the peak since its inception, and more and more teams started playing the shorter format, the ICC also later introduced the T20I ranking.
As for the current rankings are concerned, Joe Root holds the top spot in Test while Babar Azam leads in the ODI and T20I batsman ranking. Australian duo Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood holds the top spot in Test and T20I bowlers ranking with Jasprit Bumrah topping the list in the 50 overs format. Ravindra Jadeja is number 1 all-rounder in Test while Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Nabi respectively leads the ODI and T20I all-rounder ranking.
With the competitiveness throughout all formats of the game, it is not possible for any one particular player to get top spot in all three formats. So, today, in this article, we take a look at 2 players who have topped the ranking in all three formats.
Ricky Ponting
The former Australia and the most successful Australia captain, Ricky Ponting is thus far the only Australian player ever to top the ICC Rankings in all three formats of the game.
Ponting achieved the milestone when during the month of December to January in the 2005-2006 cricket season. Ponting is by far the most successful Australian captain having won the World Cup twice.
The legendary batsman played more than 500 matches across format and scored more than 27000 international runs.
Virat Kohli
There has been no stopping Virat Kohli, arguably the most successful and greatest batsman, captain and cricketer to have ever represented the game of bat and ball.
He may not be at the top of the rankings anymore, he is going through a lean patch right now, but, there is no doubt about the talent and how he dominated the ICC Rankings between 2011 to 2020.
While Virat Kohli held the top spot in the Test and ODI rankings parralel once, he was once even at the top of the pile in the T20I ranking too. He former captain has played about 470 matches across format and has scored about 25000 runs.
He was once even said to be the only likely enough to go on to beat Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 international century record. But, the luck and the time has not been with him since the year 2019, as the batsman has not scored a single Hundred after the Day and Night Test match against Bangladesh in 2019.