Dhoni - tops the icc ODI batsman ranking,nominee for 2 icc awards

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni toppled his South African counterpart Greame Smith to regain the top spot in the latest ICC ODI batsmen ranking.
By virtue of his consistent performance, including 76 and 71 in the pevious two one-dayers of the on-going ODI series against Sri Lanka, Dhoni has 803 rating points in his kitty, 27 points higher than Smith who occupies the second spot.
Dhoni had previously occupied the number one position for a brief period in 2006.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting is in the third spot with 751 points followed by team-mate Michael Hussey and England skipper Kevin Pieterson.Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is placed the ninth while an out of form Yuvraj Singh is languishing at 18th

Also Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in line for dual honours in the International Cricket's Council's (ICC) annual awards scheduled to be held in Dubai on Wednesday.Dhoni, who currently sits at the top of ODI batsmen rankings, has been nominated in two categories -- ODI Player of the Year and Twenty20 International Performance of the Year, ICC announced on Monday.Besides Dhoni, the other Indians in the fray for the awards are Sachin Tendulkar (ODI Player of the Year award), Yuvraj Singh (T20 International performance of the Year) and Ishant Sharma (Emerging Player of the Year).West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena and South Africa's Dale Steyn have been nominated for both the Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year categories in the fifth edition of the awards.The other nominee for the Cricketer of the Year is South Africa captain Graeme Smith (1172 runs) while his team-mate Jacques Kallis features in the Test category as the top scorer with 1268 runs in 14 Tests.Chanderpaul has scored 819 runs in eight Test for the calendar year (Aug 9, 2007 to Aug 12, 2008) and has the top average in both forms of the game. Jayawerdena has scored 1127 runs in 10 Tests while South African speedster Steyn has 86 scalps to his name in just 14 Tests. None of the four players shortlisted for the Cricketer of the Year Award has previously lifted the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.The dashing Dhoni has had an awesome season where he led India to victory in the inaugural T20 World Cup in England, took the reins of India's ODI team with aplomb, led the team to ODI series wins away from home in Australia and Sri Lanka. All this while he inspired the team raising his own performance with the bat that saw him dislodge South African Graeme Smith from the top spot in ODI rankings. Dhoni scored 1298 in 39 matches at an average of 49.Dhoni will be up against teammate Sachin Tendulkar, the top scorer in ODIs for the calendar year with 1310 runs, in the ODI Player of Year award category which also features Nathan Bracken and Mohammad Yousuf..

My Indian team for ODI cricket

The team is as follows with batting order positions

1. Virendar Sehwag

2. Sachin Tendulkar

3. Gautham Gambir

4. Suresh Raina

5. Yuvraj Singh

6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c) & (W.K.)

7. Rohit Sharma/Subramaniam Badrinath

8. Irfan Pathan/Praveen Kumar

9. Harbajan Singh

10. Zaheer Khan

11. R.P.Singh/Sree Shanth/Munaf Patel

Players responsibility

1. Virender Sehwag

Needs to be agressive at the start of the innings and should carry the pace till he gets out .. Also he plays a part as a bowler..

2. Sachin Tendulkar

S hould rotate the strike there by giving strike to Sehwag.. If Sehwag struggles he should be bit more aggressive at the same time cautious as he does play the anchor roe in the Indian batting order. He can be a useful spinner as well as medium fast bowler.

3.Gautham Gambir

He should take the role of the one who gets out first ..

4. Raina

He need to rotate the strike with the one he is accompanied with.. singles mus come easily and thats is his job.

5. Yuvraj Singh

As he is a slow starter he should bring his eye in with some 10 or 15 balls and should play his natural innings .. He's naturally aggressive and thats the one the team expects from him.

6. Mahender Singh Dhoni

As a captain he should play an anchor role and he is the one who needs to be there till the end. As everyone knows he is a big striker and he should accelerate the run rate from 45 overs or so. No need to comment on his captaincy and his wicket keeping ability. He does it well and good.

7. Rohit Sharma/Subramanian Badrinath

He should play according to the situation.. He needs to read the situation well and act accordingly .

8. Irfan Pathan/Praveen Kumar

He is considered to be an all-rounder.. His main part is on the bowling department. The main thing is to take wickets .. The economy rate can even be well around 5.

9. Harbajan Singh

He too should look for wickets.. Sure he can have an economy rate around 4. He should be very aggressive in field setting at the start of the innings.

10. Zaheer Khan

He is the spear head of the Indian bowling and the main part he does is to swig the ball with great control and have a good length and pace... If he does control the length and the swing the remaining will surely come with his way.

11. bR.P.Singh/Sree Santh/Munaf Patel

They too should try for wickets and should have an economy rate well around 4..

On a whole the bowlers should have an economy rate well around 4 .. Its very essential that the ground fielding should be excellent and catches should not be dropped.. The bowlers should be able to minimize the extras bowled.