The competition for first place in the MRF Tyres ICC Men's T20I Batter Rankings is getting hotter as Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam get the chance to close in on India's rising sensation Suryakumar Yadav.
Photo by michael weir on Unsplash
The latest update by the ICC shows that Babar has made progress up to the third position on the ranking. There is a high chance that Babar will take over for Surya Kumar when Pakistan commences its five-game T20I series against New Zealand.
In the most recent T20I series of Pakistan against Bangladesh, Babar and Rizwan both did not participate, and they’re ready to score freely against the black caps, who just scored a close 2-1 series against Sri Lanka at home.
The Indian star Surya Kumar, with 906 rating points, is currently leading all batters in the T20I rankings. Second-placed Rizwan, with 811 points, and third-placed Babar, with 755 points, could advance. While the Indian star is performing in the IPL.
Coincidentally, Babar moved one spot to 3rd in the most recent ranking as a result of Devin Conway’s absence from the NZ series against Sri Lanka; the Kiwi batter is also competing in the IPL with the Chennai Super Kings.
Mahesh Theekhshana, a youthful spinner who just reached a career-high rating and an equal 5th place in the rankings for bowlers, was the biggest draw among the many New Zealand and Sri Lankan stars who did participate in the recently ended T20I series.
Theekshans’s superb efforts in the Super Over made him the match-winner in the first match of the series. The off-spinner followed up on that performance with a couple of impressive outgoings when opening the bowling in the remaining two games.
Teammate Wanindu Harasanga was costly during the series and, as a result, fell two levels to fourth on the T20I bowling rankings, with Australia’s Josh Hazlewood moving up one place to third and Afghanistan’s Fazal Haq moving up one spot to second.
That also means Afghanistan holds the top two spots on the T20I bowler rankings, with Rashid Khan leading Farooqi in a closely contested ongoing battle for first place.
On the most recent T20I rankings for batters, NZ right-hander Tim Seaford moved up from outside the top 10 to 36th and Sri Lanka dasher Kusal Mendis (up 11 spots to equal 25th) were the other notable winner. There was some movement in the Test rankings after Bangladesh's victory over Ireland in Mirpur.
Mushfiqur Rahim, the right-handed bowler, advanced five places to 17th after scores of 125 and 51* on the test batter ranking, while the spin duo on the list for bowlers, Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan received rewards.
Taijul amassed a priceless five-wicket haul in the first innings and progressed three places to reach 20.
We can’t say who will make it to the top in ranking, but
Surya Kumar, Babar and Rizwan really got a competition. Let’s wait for the
final results to come out to know who the hero of T20I will be.