Mitchell’s two consecutive scores of 130-plus not only puts him level with Martin Guptill for the most in New Zealand’s ODI history (four), but it also rounds out his meteoric rise to top spot in the ICC’s ODI Batting Rankings.
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 the aforementioned Babar.
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.
Only South African AB de Villiers has more ODI centuries in India against India (five) than Mitchell now does (four).
In 54 innings, Mitchell is still 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.
