Highest Batting Average in ODI Cricket: Shubman Gill Leads at 60.33

Shubman Gill owns the highest career ODI batting average among genuinely qualified batters as of 2026: 60.33 runs per dismissal across 66 matches. Virat Kohli sits a fraction behind at 58.59 — remarkable given he’s compiled it over 302 innings, more than four and a half times Gill’s sample. Below them, Michael Bevan, AB de Villiers, and Babar Azam form the rest of a top six that all average above 53, before the list settles into a long tail of genuine ODI greats sitting in the high 40s.

The full ranked list: top 20 qualified ODI averages

This table applies a 2,000-run career floor (see methodology below) and is sorted by average. Figures are current as of mid-2026 and will keep moving for every player still active.

Averages below this line drift into the high 40s — Kumar Sangakkara (41.98) and Ricky Ponting (42.03) are among the most ODI runs ever scored but fall well short of this table on average alone.

How this list is ranked

ESPNcricinfo’s own “highest career average” record uses a 20-innings floor — which lets low-volume careers like Ryan ten Doeschate’s (32 innings, 67.00) sit above every full-length career in history. That’s accurate but not useful for judging greatness. This list instead requires 2,000-plus career ODI runs, a threshold that still admits players early in long careers (Gill, Mitchell, Zadran) while excluding statistical outliers built on small samples. Every figure here is cross-checked against ESPNcricinfo’s records database and Wikipedia’s ODI records page, both current to mid-2026.

Breaking down the top tier

Shubman Gill reached 2,000 ODI runs faster than anyone in history (38 innings) and has kept scoring at a pace that’s kept his average above 60 — but with only 66 matches played, it’s the least stable number on this list. Virat Kohli is the opposite case: 58.59 compiled over the longest career here, built on 54 centuries — more than any other batter, ahead of Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 — and a record for consistency in highest score chases that other elite batters can’t match. AB de Villiers paired that average with a 101.09 strike rate, the rare combination that made him one of the most feared finishers of his generation, a status echoed among the best finishers in cricket. Babar Azam got to 6,000 ODI runs faster than any Pakistani batter and has stayed above 53 even through a form dip in 2024-25 — a sign of how much a deep career sample smooths out.

Why not-outs skew the picture

Batting average is runs divided by dismissals, not innings — so a not-out doesn’t count against the number. That’s why MS Dhoni (84 not outs in 297 innings, 28%) and Michael Bevan (67 in 196, 34%) sit high on this list despite rarely opening or facing the new ball. Both were finishers who batted at No. 5 or lower, where an innings frequently ends before they’re dismissed. It doesn’t make their averages fake — Dhoni built a career on exactly that skill — but it does mean comparing a finisher’s average against an opener’s like Gill or Kohli isn’t a clean, apples-to-apples read.

Where this stands in 2026

This table moves with every completed ODI innings from an active player. Gill, Kohli, Root, Babar, Rahul, Zadran, Hope, and Williamson are all still adding to their numbers, so this exact order is a snapshot rather than a settled record. For context on the format’s broader hierarchy, most centuries in cricket and most ODI wickets track the complementary batting and bowling leaderboards, while players like Misbah-ul-Haq show up on the separate most ODI runs without a century list — proof that volume, average, and conversion rate are three different skills, not one.