Dubai [UAE], July 30 (ANI): Young Indian left-hand opener Abhishek Sharma on Wednesday become the third Indian batter to reach the No.1 spot in T20I rankings, joining elite company with Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.
Abhishek Sharma now sits atop the rankings with 829 points, surpassing Australia’s Travis Head (814 points) and his fellow Indian Tilak Varma (804 points), as per the ICC.
Abhishek has played 17 T20Is, scoring two hundreds and two fifties with a strike rate of 193.84. His consistent performances against South Africa and England propelled him to the top spot, displacing Travis Head, who hadn’t played since September last year.
Other Indians in the top 10 include Tilak Varma at No. 3 and Suryakumar Yadav at No. 6, while Yashasvi Jaiswal is ranked 11th.
Abhishek only burst onto the international scene last year when he scored a superb T20I century against Zimbabwe, but more recent efforts against South Africa and England have seen the 24-year-old overtake Head at the top of the batter rankings and become the new No.1 in the shortest format.
Head had held the No.1 ranking since he went past Suryakumar during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last year, but the decision to sit out Australia’s recent T20 series against the West Indies in the Caribbean saw Abhishek become just the third player from India to hold the top position.
Suryakumar held the top ranking before Head, while Kohli was the first Indian men’s player to have the prestigious place in T20I cricket when he maintained the No.1 spot for much of the period between 2014 and 2017.
While Head dropped to second on the updated rankings for T20I batters, a big group of his Australian teammates were rewarded with large gains following an impressive 5-0 sweep over the West Indies away from home in the recent five-match series.
Right-hander Josh Inglis improved six places to jump to ninth for T20I batters, Tim David gained 12 spots to move to 28th, while Cameron Green climbed a whopping 64 spots to go to 24th following his 205 runs across the five matches and Player of the Series heroics.
Australian pace duo Nathan Ellis (up seven spots to equal eighth) and Sean Abbott (up 21 rungs to 23rd) make gains on the latest rankings for T20I bowlers, while Kiwi quick Matt Henry (up 10 places to 19th) is a rapid improver up the bowling charts following some impressive performances during New Zealand’s successful tri-series triumph over South Africa and Zimbabwe
England right-hand batter Joe Root maintained his top position and increased his lead at the top of the rankings for Test batters following his innings of 150 at Old Trafford, where he overtook Australian legend Ricky Ponting and became the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket, as per the ICC.
His England teammate Ben Duckett also gained and moved back inside the top 10 after he gained five places to jump to 10th overall after his knock of 94 from the same match.
India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant also makes some ground inside the top 10 as he moved up one place to seventh on the back of his half-century in Manchester despite battling injury, with teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping three spots to eighth.
India veteran Ravindra Jadeja earned a new career-high rating on the batting charts for his unbeaten century in the second innings and gained five spots to move to 29th overall, with England captain Ben Stokes improving eight spots to equal 34th on the same list.
Stokes also gained three places to jump to third on the rankings for Test all-rounders, while the top 10 in the list for Test bowlers remains unchanged as India pacer Jasprit Bumrah holds on to his lead as the No.1 ranked Test bowler. (ANI)
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