Sibanda, who put on a brilliant show against Bangladesh in their recent tour of the country, recently rose 16 places up to 62 on the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings for One Day International batsmen. Sibanda’s rise is attributable to his unbeaten 103 in the last ODI, which helped Zimbabwe seal the series 2-1. His teammate, Sean Williams, re-entered the batting rankings in the 66th position. Unfortunately, Sibanda will have to wait a bit longer to try and rise further, after India cancelled their visit to Zimbabwe, which had been pencilled-in for July. India’s tour had been billed to mark the first assignment for new Zimbabwe national team coach, Andy Waller, who was expected to take up his new job just before the start of the tour. The South African duo of AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla shared the top batting spot, while India’s Virat Kohli was third. Another beneficiary of the Bangladesh tour was bowler Elton Chigumbura, who moved 20 places to 78th in the world.
Zimbabwe and the Tigers drew one-all in the Two Tests and the Two Twenty 20 matches, but the hosts took the ODI series 2-1. The last time the two teams had met was in August, 2011, when the hosts won the one-off Test by 130 runs and clinched the five ODI series 3-2.