1. Babar Azam:
Babar Azam, a Pakistani cricketer, has been attracting attention. He is a top-order batsman who also serves as the T20 Captain and Vice-Captain of the Pakistani cricket team. He made his ODI debut at the tender age of 20 in 2015, and in the ICC World Cup 2019 in England, he was Pakistan's best run-scorer.
He is considered a prodigy at the age of 25. When he became the first player in history to hit five straight centuries in the same country, he was named the PCB's ODI Player of the Year in 2017. He is ranked third among the top ten ODI batsmen in the world.
He hit 54 runs off just 60 deliveries in his first ODI encounter. He is also the only Pakistani cricketer to hit three hundred in a calendar year.
2. Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli, the India captain, is presently ranked number one in the ICC ODI player rankings for 2021. He produces many runs for the team as a top-order batsman, and he prefers pursuing a target than putting up a score to be chased by the opposition team.
He was born on November 5, 1988, in Delhi and made it to the international format in 2008, at the age of 19, when he was just 19 years old. He is presently ranked 869/1000 by the ICC.
He holds the world record for completing 11,000 ODI runs faster than anybody else, even Sachin Tendulkar. He has won the ICC One-Day International Player of the Year title three times, in 2012, 2017, and 2018.
3. Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma is another Indian cricketer on the list; he is the Indian cricket team's opener and the team's Vice-Captain. Rohit Gurunath Sharma is his full name, and he was born in Nagpur on April 30, 1987.
He began his career when he was 20 years old, and he is presently ranked second among the top ten ODI batters in the world.
With 264 runs in an ODI match, Rohit Sharma holds the world record for most runs scored in an ODI match. With three double centuries, he has the Double Centuries of any cricketer in the world in ODI format.
4. Ross Taylor
Ross Taylor is a New Zealand cricketer who bats in the middle order. He has previously served as the captain of the New Zealand cricket team. Later Ross Poutao Taylor is his full name, and he was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, on March 8, 1984. He is ranked fourth among the top ten ODI batters in the world.
When he was 22 years old, he made his ODI debut in 2006 but only scored 15 runs. In his third ODI encounter, he scored 128* against Sri Lanka. In addition, he is one of just a handful of players in the world to have achieved a double century in Test cricket.
He has represented his country in four ICC World Cups: 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. Ross Taylor is also the first New Zealander to score hundreds against every country that plays Test cricket in the ODI format. Not only that, but he is only the fourth player in the game's history to hit a century on his birthday.
5. Aaron Finch
Another Australian batter on the list is Aaron Finch, who is ranked 9th in the world's top 10 ODI batsmen. He is the Australian cricket team's opening batsman and acts as the captain in the limited-overs format.
Aaron Finch was born on November 17, 1986, in Colac, Victoria, Australia. His full name is Aaron James Finch. At 27, he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2013, scoring only 16 runs. This, however, does not overshadow his track record.
He has the best individual score of 172 in T20I and the most runs scored by any opener and captain. And in doing so, he shattered his own 156-run record set by no other player. He and David Warner just set a new record for the biggest opening partnership in cricket history with 285 runs against India.
6. Jonny Bairstow
Jonny Bairstow, the son of former England wicketkeeper David Bairstow, is a 31-year-old English wicket-keeper batsman. The fact that he is the only English cricketer among the top men's ODI batsmen in the world speaks much about his ability. He made his first-class debut in 2009, scoring an unbeaten 82 in the second innings to lead the team.
He made his One Day International debut against India in the fifth ODI against the visiting Indians in Cardiff in 2011. He made it memorable with a brilliant 21-ball 41 that helped his team win the match. Bairstow is also the first England player to achieve three straight One Day International hundreds, which he accomplished in 2018.
In one-day internationals, Jonny Bairstow has a strike rate of 103.72, with 10 centuries and 13 half-centuries to his credit.
7. David Warner
An Australian cricketer who is presently ranked 6th in the world's top ten ODI batsmen. He has captained the Australian Cricket Team and continues to open for them. David Andrew Warner is his full name, and he was born on October 27, 1986, in Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Warner made his ODI debut against South Africa when he was just 20 years old in 2009, scoring 5 runs; however, he is the first Australian cricketer to have not played a single First-Class match since 1877.
When he struck 178 against Afghanistan in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, he set a new career-best and helped Australia achieve 417/6, the biggest total in any World Cup ever.
8. Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock is another South African on the list of the greatest ODI batsmen globally, where he is ranked 10th. He also serves as the team's wicketkeeper. He was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa, on December 17, 1992.
He made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2013 when he was just 20 years old, scoring 18 runs. He hit a blistering century against Pakistan after returning to the ODI team in November 2013, but he truly shone in December 2013, when he scored three consecutive hundreds against India.
Not only that but against Australia in 2016, he scored 178 runs in just 113 balls. He also owns the fastest 12 ODI hundreds in 74 ODIs, which has yet to be beaten.
9. Shai Hope
Shai Diego Hope is a 27-year-old Barbadian cricketer who made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in the second match of a tri-series on November 16, 2016. In the same tri-series, Hope hit his first International ODI century against Zimbabwe in the second match. In 2021, he is the only Barbadian cricketer among the world's top 10 ICC ODI Men Batsmen.
Hope has a 52.94 average and a strike rate of 74.91 in 81 One-Day Internationals. He has also amassed ten centuries, the biggest of which came against Ireland on the 5th of May 2019 in a tri-nation series, when he struck 170 in just 152 balls. In addition, he has 19 half-centuries in ODIs thus far.
10. Kane Williamson
Kane Williamson is another New Zealand player, currently ranked 7th in the world's top ten ODI batters with 773 points. Williamson now serves as captain of the New Zealand Cricket Team in all formats.
He is a top-order batsman for the squad, born in Tauranga, New Zealand, on August 8, 1990. Williamson made his ODI debut against India in 2010 when he was 20 years old, and he went back to the stands on a duck. This did not, however, prevent him from achieving great heights.
With only 78 innings, he is the fastest New Zealand player to reach 3,000 runs and the fifth-fastest in the world. He also assisted his country in reaching the 2019 ICC World Cup finals, when they were defeated by England in a nail-biting encounter.
Bottom Line:
This concludes the ICC's list of the top 10 men's ODI batters in the world in 2021. Do you believe someone else deserved to be on the list because they did better?
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