In the ICC Twenty20 International batter rankings, Babar Azam has moved up.
The competition at the top of the ICC Men’s T20I Batter Rankings is getting more intense as time goes on.
The competition for first place in the ICC Men’s T20I Batter Rankings keeps getting hotter as Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam have the potential to catch up to Suryakumar Yadav, the rising star from India.
When Pakistan’s five-game T20I series against New Zealand gets underway on Saturday, Babar will have another chance to close the gap on Suryakumar in the new rankings, which were updated by the ICC on Wednesday.
Babar and Rizwan both missed Pakistan’s most recent T20I series against Afghanistan and will be eager to pounce on the Black Caps, who are coming off a close 2-1 series victory over Sri Lanka at home, to open the scoring.
With 906 rating points, Suryakumar now leads all batters in the T20I rankings, but while the India star is playing in the IPL, second-placed Rizwan (811) and third-placed Babar (755) could advance.
Ironically, Babar rose one spot to third in the most recent rankings as a result of Devon Conway’s absence from New Zealand’s series against Sri Lanka. The Kiwi batter is also competing in the IPL with the Chennai Super Kings.
Maheesh Theekshana, a youthful spinner who just reached a career-high rating and equal fifth place on the rankings for bowlers, was the biggest draw among the many New Zealand and Sri Lankan stars who did participate in the recently concluded T20I series.
Theekshana’s efforts in the Super Over helped Sri Lanka win the first game of the series, and the off-spinner followed up on that performance with a couple of impressive outings when opening the bowling in the remaining two games.
Teammate Wanindu Hasaranga was costly during the series and as a result fell two spots to fourth on the T20I bowling rankings, with Australia’s Josh Hazlewood moving up one spot to third and Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi moving up one spot to second.
Additionally, it means that Afghanistan currently holds the top two slots in the T20I bowling rankings, with Farooqi trailing spinner Rashid Khan in a closely contested battle for first place.
On the most recent T20I rankings for batters, New Zealand right-hander Tim Seifert (up from outside the top 100 to 36th) and Sri Lanka dasher Kusal Mendis (up 11 spots to equal 25th) were the other notable winners. There was some movement on the Test rankings after Bangladesh’s victory over Ireland in Mirpur.
After scores of 126 and 51*, veteran right-hander Mushfiqur Rahim rose five spots to position 17 on the list of Test batters. Meanwhile, spin combo Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan were recognised on the list of bowlers.
As a result of his vital five-wicket haul in the first innings, Taijul rose three slots to tie for 20th, while the Bangladesh captain went up two spots to tie for 26th after commencing the second innings bowling with numbers of 2/26.