Babar Azam retains No 1 spot as India batters move up in T20I rankings – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Pakistan captain Babar Azam has retained the number one position in the latest ICC Men’s player rankings for T20I batters. The Indian batters have also made a significant stride after the recent series against West Indies with Suryakumar Yadav retained the second spot, inches behind Babar.

India cruised to a 4-1 thumping of the West Indies in the five-match series. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were the biggest gainers in the rankings released by the ICC on Wednesday.

Iyer, who had not been able to do well in T20Is, hit an inspiring half-century in the final match in Florida and moved up the ladder by six positions to 19^th rank in the batter rankings.

Pant as well, jumped seven places to 59^th after finishing the series as the joint second highest run scorer.

Suryakumar, who was given the role of opening in the series, ended as the leading run scorer with 135 runs. But he was rested for the final match and hence, missed out on the chance to overtake Babar for the top spot.

Babar (818 points) now leads with 13 rating points ahead of second-placed Yadav (805 points). Pakistan’s Mohammed Rizwan is third on the table with 794 points.

No other Indian features in the top 10, Ishan Kishan being the next best ranked Indian at 15^th position.

South Africa’s recent win against Ireland also saw their players move up the ranks on the back of some excellent performances. Aiden Markram retained his fourth position with 792 rating points. Reeza Hendricks who has been in superb form in T20Is moved two more spots up to 13^th place.

Several Indian bowlers including Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel as well as Kuldeep Yadav made an upward stride after doing well against West Indies, .

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, however, dropped a place to 9^th rank after bagging only three wickets against West Indies.

South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj and Dwaine Pretorius as well jumped upwards in the bowlers’ and all-rounders’ rankings to 18^th and 26^th positions respectively.

With the Asia Cup starting in less than a month’s time, the rankings are expected to have a significant change during the multinational event.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.