Suryakumar Yadav continues to top the ICC T20 batsmen rankings despite Babar Azam’s century in the recent T20I against New Zealand. In the latest update, Suryakumar with 906 rating points is more than 100 points clear of second-placed Mohammad Rizwan (798), Pakistan’s wicketkeeper and batsman. Not to forget that Surya is the only Indian batsman in the top 10 of the rankings for batsmen. India’s star cricketer Virat Kohli is the next best Indian at 14th position in the rankings.
Babar Azam is in good form on Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand. He scored a brilliant century in the second T20 match. However, with a score of just 1 in the third T20I, Babar failed to break into the top 3 of the rankings. He has been placed at number three with 769 marks.
With Surya not playing T20Is at the moment, Babar and Rizwan had a great chance to topple the India batsman at the top. However, the gap between No.1 and 2, 3 is so high that it may require two big innings from Rizwan and Babar to topple Surya at the top.
, , , , , , , , pic.twitter.com/aCLowaN63w– Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) April 16, 2023
In the list of all-rounders, Hardik Pandya is second only to leader Shakib Al Hasan. Ten wickets in three T20Is have helped Haris Rauf overtake Shadab Khan to become the top-ranked Pakistan bowler. Rauf took four consecutive wickets in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand and won the player of the match award in the first match.
The Pakistan pacer was last week ahead of Shaheen Afridi and behind Shadab Khan, who was ranked 12th in the T20I bowling rankings. After taking 10 wickets in the first three T20 matches, Rauf has moved up five places to reach 11th position in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Ish Sodhi (620) and Shaheen (624) have also moved up four places and two places respectively, while others around them have dropped points. The other big change in the rankings came from Sri Lanka as Prabhat Jayasuriya continued his magical start in red-ball cricket.
With inputs from PTI