ICC rankings: Adil Rashid has top spot in T20I bowlers, Babar among batters in ODIs
Dubai: England spinner Adil Rashid was crowned as the number one T20I bowler while Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam dethroned Indian opener Shubman Gill to regain his top spot in ODI batting in the ICC Rankings issued on Wednesday.
Rashid has got rewarded for his good form in the Caribbean (7 wickets in four T20Is so far). He has moved up two places and takes the top spot from Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan (second) and India’s Ravi Bishnoi (third) in T20Is for bowlers, with a host of England and West Indies players making moves up and down the charts less than six months before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Rashid is the second player from England to secure the top rank among T20I bowlers after off-spinner Graeme Swann held the top spot back more than a decade ago, as per ICC.
It means three different players have held the top position on the list for T20I bowlers over the last three weeks, with West Indies spinner Akeal Hosein (up three spots to sixth) and South Africa counterpart Tabraiz Shamsi (up three places to ninth) also making noticeable movement within the top 10 on a busy day for the rankings.
West Indies quartet Brandon King (up six places to sixth), Nicholas Pooran (up two spots to 12th), Rovman Powell (Up 14 places to 23rd) and Kyle Mayers (up nine spots to 33rd) made some ground on top-ranked T20I India batter Suryakumar Yadav, while Phil Salt skyrocketed to 20th spot following his superb run for England in the Caribbean, which saw him hit two successive tons in third and fourth T20Is.
Suryakumar’s lead at the top is now a total of 100 rating points following a quickfire century in the final game of India’s T20I series against South Africa, with Pakistan veteran Mohammad Rizwan (second) and South Africa dasher Aiden Markram (third) as his closest rivals.
Markram moves up one place to third behind Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan on the latest T20I rankings for all-rounders, with England spinner Moeen Ali (up two spots to equal eighth) and West Indies seamer Jason Holder (up one rung to 24th) also making moves.
Things are even tighter in 50-over cricket, with Babar re-claiming his place as the number one ranked ODI batter in the world from Gill as the Indian opener is rested from the ODI series against South Africa.
Ireland’s Harry Tector moves up one place on the ODI batter rankings to seventh on the back of his 33 against Zimbabwe, while South Africa duo Rassie van der Dussen (down one spot to eighth) and Heinrich Klaasen (drops one rung to 10th) lose some ground inside the top 10 following small scores in the opening match of their series with India.
Some changes have also taken place within the latest Test rankings following Australia’s emphatic 360-run victory over Pakistan in Perth, with plenty of stars from the reigning ICC World Test Championship side making some eye-catching progress.
Opener Usman Khawaja (up three places to fourth) has moved ahead of Babar and is within striking distance of top-ranked Kiwi Kane Williamson on the updated rankings for Test batters, while teammates David Warner (up nine spots to 27th) and Mitchell Marsh (improves 12 places to equal 68th) also made upward movement following good knocks against Pakistan.
It is a similar story on the bowler side of things, with Australia quartet Pat Cummins (up one place to third), Nathan Lyon (up three spots to fifth), Mitchell Starc (up two places to eighth) and Josh Hazlewood (up two spots to 10th) all making upward movement within the top 10 as India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continues to hold the top spot.
