London -  Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday became the world's top batsman in the ICC one-day rankings with a phenomenal average of 52.76 and an awesome strike-rate of 103.

On breaking this news, Dhoni's fans gathered in his state and raised slogans in his favor as a cricket hero. They also enjoyed fireworks on his success for the honor that he brought to the country.

Dhoni, who was placed second behind Ricky Ponting before the two-match one-day series against Pakistan, displaced the Australian captain from the top spot after his fine knock of 59 in the second match in Abu Dhabi, as per telegraphindia.

However, the 1-1 honors in the series meant that India and Pakistan remain unchanged in the team championship table, on third and fourth places, respectively.

The 24-year-old Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batsman, who made his ODI debut in December 2004, has made a remarkably rapid rise with his statistics providing compelling support for his position on top of the ODI charts released by the ICC Thursday.

Since making his debut, Dhoni has played in 42 matches and has scored two centuries (hundreds) and eight fifties.

Dhoni is one of the three Indian batsmen among the top-10, with Captain Rahul Dravid ninth (up two places) and Yuvraj Singh (10th) also featuring.

Irfan Pathan remains in third position in the rankings for ODI allrounders, behind Shaun Pollock and Andrew Flintoff, but he now has his best-ever haul of rating points. Pathan is also placed third among bowlers, having moved up one place.

Another India player in the bowlers top-10 is off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (10th), but he slipped three spots as a result of his performances in Abu Dhabi.
However, several other Indian bowlers are on the way up the list.

Ajit Agarkar is up four spots to 21st position, Sreesanth rises 12 places to be joint 54th (alongside Bangladesh's Manjural Islam Rana) and Ramesh Powar has broken into the top-100, up 19 places to 82nd.

Pakistan have three batsmen in the top-25 with captain Inzamam-ul Haq and Mohammed Yousuf in joint 15th position and Shoaib Malik in 23rd spot.

Younis Khan, whose unbeaten 71 guided his side to victory on Tuesday, is up eight places to joint 44th alongside Sri Lanka's Russel Arnold.

The leading Pakistan bowler is Rana Naved-ul Hasan, who remains unchanged in 12th position, while Shoaib Malik is in fifth spot in the allrounders list.

In the team rankings, India trail South Africa by three points and are 16 points behind leaders Australia while Pakistan are two points back from India.

1. Australia; 2. South Africa; 3. India; 4. Pakistan; 5. New Zealand; 6. Sri Lanka; 7. England; 8. West Indies; 9. Zimbabwe; 10. Bangladesh; 11. Kenya.

TOP-10 BATSMEN

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni; 2. Ricky Ponting; 3. Adam Gilchrist; 4. Andrew Symonds; 5. Graeme Smith; 6. Mike Hussey; 7. Kevin Pietersen; 8. Kumar Sangakkara; 9. Rahul Dravid; 10. Yuvraj Singh.

TOP-10 BOWLERS

1. Shaun Pollock; 2. Glenn McGrath; 3. Irfan Pathan; 4. Shane Bond; 5. Daniel Vettori; 6. Brett Lee; 7. Muttiah Muralidharan; 8. Chaminda Vaas and Nathan Bracken; 10. Harbhajan Singh.

TOP-5 ALLROUNDERS
1. Shaun Pollock; 2. Andrew Flintoff; 3. Irfan Pathan; 4. Andrew Symonds; 5. Shoaib Malik.

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