ICC WT20I Rankings: Shafali Verma maintains top spot as Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce enters top-10

Shafali is holding onto her top rank with 776 ranking points well ahead of Australia’s Beth Mooney (744) and Meg Lanning (709). India’s vice-captain in the limited-overs format, Smriti Mandhana, is ranked fourth while Jemimah Rodrigues is the third Indian batter in the top ten at ninth position.

The highlight of the latest list is Scotland all-rounder Bryce due to her good show, finishing as the leading scorer for her team despite losing the four-match T20 series against Ireland 1-3.

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India also has two bowlers in the top-10 list with off-spinner Deepti Sharma at sixth and left-arm spinner Radha Yadav just a notch below at seventh. Deepti has 705 ranking points while Radha logged home 702. The bowlers’ list is led by England’s left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone.

Bryce is the first player from Scotland, male or female, to make it to the top 10 of the batting or bowling lists in the ICC Player Rankings after finishing as the leading scorer from her team in a four-match T20I series in Belfast which Ireland won 3-1.

The 23-year-old, who was named the ICC Women’s Associate Player of the Decade in December, has gained nine slots to reach 10th position among batters in the ICC Women’s T20I Player Rankings.

Kathryn’s sister Sarah Bryce was ranked 14th among T20I women batters in August 2019 and off-spinner Majid Haq had reached 13th position among bowlers in the men’s T20I rankings in November 2013 in what were the previous highest rankings for Scotland players.

Kathryn Bryce, who aggregated 96 runs in the series including an unbeaten 45 in the third match, has also achieved career-best rankings as a bowler and as an all-rounder. She has moved up 35 places to 31st among bowlers after grabbing five wickets in the series. She is up 10 places to third among all-rounders.

Ireland’s Gaby Lewis, who was the leading scorer in the series with 116 runs, is another gainer in the latest weekly update, progressing seven places to reach 27th position. Her team-mate Shauna Kavanagh (up 60 places to 103rd) has also made notable progress after finishing with 93 runs.