Suryakumar Yadav remains top batter, Babar Azam rises to third position in latest ICC T20 Rankings

Suryakumar Yadav, the star Indian T20I batter, maintains his top position in the latest ICC Men’s T20I Rankings for batters released on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan are poised to narrow the gap during the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand.

Babar climbed to third place in the rankings and will have more opportunities to close in on Suryakumar as Pakistan begins their five-match T20I series against New Zealand on Saturday.

Babar and Rizwan, who didn’t participate in Pakistan’s recent T20I series against Bangladesh, are eager to perform well against the Black Caps, a team fresh off a narrow 2-1 series victory over Sri Lanka.

Suryakumar’s current lead in the T20I rankings for batters, with 906 rating points, could be challenged by Rizwan (811) and Babar (755) as the Indian star plays in the IPL. Interestingly, Babar’s rise to third place resulted from Devon Conway’s absence in New Zealand’s series against Sri Lanka, as Conway is also participating in the IPL with Chennai Super Kings.

In the recently concluded T20I series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, several players saw their rankings improve. The most notable among them was 22-year-old spinner Maheesh Theekshana, who reached a career-high rating and tied for fifth place in the rankings for bowlers.

Theekshana delivered match-winning performances for Sri Lanka and continued to excel in the final two matches. His teammate, Wanindu Hasaranga, however, dropped to fourth place in the T20I bowler rankings due to his costly spells in the series.

This allowed Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi (second) and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood (third) to each climb a spot.

With Rashid Khan and Farooqi occupying the top two positions in the T20I bowler rankings, Afghanistan now dominates the list. Additionally, Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis (up 11 spots to tie for 25th) and New Zealand’s Tim Seifert (from outside the top 100 to 36th) significantly improved their standings in the T20I rankings for batters.

In the Test rankings, experienced batter Mushfiqur Rahim rose five places to 17th following Bangladesh’s victory over Ireland in Mirpur, where he scored 126 and 51*. Spinners Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan also benefited from their performances; Taijul’s five-wicket haul in the first innings propelled him three places higher to 20th, while team captain Shakib advanced two spots to a tie for 26th.

Also See: New Zealand tour of Pakistan 2023