Explainer: How Virat Kohli finished over Ravindra Jadeja in their final ICC T20I All-Rounder Rankings

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli has outranked his teammate Ravindra Jadeja in the ICC T20I all-rounder rankings, despite Jadeja being a premier all-rounder. Following India's triumphant victory in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Virat Kohli and Jadeja announced their retirement from T20I cricket.

Their decision to bow out on a high note, with a World Cup trophy in hand, marked the end of illustrious careers in the game's shortest format. The final ICC rankings revealed an unexpected twist in the all-rounder category.

The latest rankings placed Kohli at the 79th spot, while Jadeja finished at 86th. The 35-year-old performance in the marquee event was noteworthy, scoring 151 runs, including a match-winning knock in the final against South Africa.

"We have devised an all-rounder index that gives a good indication of who the best all-rounders in the world are in Test and One Day cricket. To obtain the index, simply take the player's batting and bowling points, multiply them together, and divide by 1000. So a player with 800 batting and 0 bowling gets an index of zero (because he can't bowl and therefore isn't an all-rounder!), 600 batting/200 bowling gets a rating of 120, and 400 batting/400 bowling points gets a rating of 160. An index of 300 plus is world-class. There are far more all-rounders in T20s and ODIs than Tests, but the same names tend to appear high in both lists. Incidentally, this index does omit one important all-rounder skill, namely fielding. There is no satisfactory way of rating fielding skills statistically at present," explains ICC.

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Kohli's efforts propelled him to the 40th position in the T20I batters rankings. However, Kohli did not bowl a single delivery throughout the tournament. In contrast, Jadeja had a relatively quiet World Cup campaign, scoring only 35 runs and claiming just one wicket.

The ranking system for all-rounders takes into account both batting and bowling performances. Kohli's superior batting statistics over his career, with 4,188 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04, played a significant role in his higher ranking. Jadeja's career batting figures stand at 515 runs with an average of 21.45 and a strike rate of 127.16.

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While Jadeja's bowling record is far more impressive, with 54 wickets in 71 innings at an average of 29.85 and an economy rate of 7.13, Kohli's minimal bowling contributions (4 wickets in 13 innings) were enough to keep him in contention as an all-rounder.