India opener Shikhar Dhawan and pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar has taken a huge leap in the latest ICC T20I Player Rankings, riding on their excellent performances in a 2-1 T20 International series win over South Africa.
Dhawan had scored 143 runs in the series to emerge as the top run-scorer in the three-game T20I series, leapfrogged 14 positions to grab a career-best 28th spot, while Man of the series Kumar, who took seven wickets, jumped 20 places to reach the 12th spot in the Player Rankings. Interestingly, the only fast bowler who has managed to feature in the top five of the latest release is India’s Jasprit Bumrah. It is worth noting that Bumrah has slipped from his previous position to be at number five on the list.
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In the ICC T20I Team Rankings, India has gained one point and South Africa have lost one point but they have retained their third and seventh positions, respectively. Pakistan is leading the table at 126 points but only marginally ahead of Australia.
South Africa’s stand-in skipper Jean-Paul Duminy, who scored 122 runs in the series, also jumped four places to be at the 24th spot in the batting ranking. Among others, Afghanistan leggie Rashid Khan has reached the numero uno position among bowlers with some fine performances in a 2-0 series win over Zimbabwe.
Rashid, who last week became the youngest male cricketer to become the no.1 position in the ICC rankings when he rose up to joint-first in ODIs, has moved up after taking five scalps in the two-match series in Sharjah to complete the double.
The latest update includes performances in the Trans-Tasman series in New Zealand that also featured Australia and England, a three-match series in South Africa that India won 2-1, and Sri Lankas 2-0 win over hosts Bangladesh.
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New Zealand’s southpaw Munro has gained three positions after scoring 176 runs in the Trans-Tasman series, which came with the help of two half-centuries and at a strike-rate of almost 210. Maxwell recaptured the no.1 position for all-rounders scoring 233 runs and grabbing three scalps in the tournament.
Virat Kohli loses his position in the rankings
In the list of batsmen, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill (up six places to fifth) has made important movement after scoring 258 runs while Englands Dawid Malan (up 127 positions to a career-best 22nd), Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar (up three places to 20th) and Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis (up 66 places to 75th) are among the others to gain. Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, who had a quiet outing in South Africa in T20Is, has slipped to the number 6th spot in the rankings.