England rise to No.1 in ODIs

England have replaced Australia as the top ODI side in the ICC rankings after the annual update of the tables, while Australia have slipped to No. 4. It is the first time that England have achieved the top spot since the inception of team-ranking tables in 2002.

England lead the table with 121 rating points, closely followed by South Africa, while world champions India are placed third with 120 points. Australia, who are eight points behind India, dropped to their lowest-ever ranking, after being the top ranked one-day side since September 2009. The change in the rankings has not affected the positions of teams below Australia.

The ICC ranking tables are updated annually in August to reflect teams' recent form. The updated tables only include results from matches played after August 2010, with older results from between August 2009 and July 2010 being discarded. The drop in case of Australia is significant as their successful run of 30 wins from 40 matches in 2009-10 is excluded from the updated tables.

England, however, lost their top T20 ranking to South Africa to be placed a close second with only one rating-point difference between the two. The teams are followed by Sri Lanka, India and West Indies. Australia, who were sixth before the update, have dropped to ninth with 93 rating points - 2 below eighth placed Bangladesh.

Like the Test championships tables, the ODI and T20 tables could also see a new leader when South Africa complete the limited-overs leg of their England tour.