Rohit Sharma moves up to 8th, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan inch closer to top 10 in T20I rankings
New Delhi: Rohit Sharma moved up to world number eight while Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan inched closer to the top 10 spot in the latest ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings released on Wednesday. Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai and Scotland’s George Munsey have also achieved new highs for their respective teams.
Kohli’s unbeaten 72 in the second T20I of the three-match series against South Africa that ended in a 1-1 draw, has seen him gain one spot and reach 11th in the batting list while Dhawan has moved up three places to 13th after scores of 40 and 36.
The latest rankings take into account the India-South Africa series, the Bangladesh tri-series also featuring Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, as well as the Ireland tri-series in which Scotland and the Netherlands were the other teams, said a statement released by the ICC.
Fifth-ranked Zazai’s current 727 points are the highest by an Afghanistan batsman in history while 21st-ranked Munsey became the first Scotland batsman to reach 600 points after scoring an unbeaten 127 off just 56 balls against the Netherlands before dropping to 585 at the end of the series.
The series in India also saw South Africa’s Quinton de Kock move up from 49th to 30th, his highest position in two years, after scores of 52 and 79 not out.
Spinner Tabraiz Shamsi has reached the top 20 in the bowlers’ list for the first time while Andile Phehlukwayo has achieved a career-best ranking of seventh.
There were also some interesting facts in the Bangladesh tri-series. Captain Hamilton Masakadza retired from international cricket in 22nd place as Zimbabwe’s highest-ranked batsman at the time and Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has moved into the top 10 with seven wickets in the series.
The Ireland series saw the Dutch pair of Ben Cooper and Max O’Dowd achieve their highest rankings at joint 41st among batsmen while Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien has achieved a career-high 459 rating points in batting. Andrew Balbirnie has also progressed from 95th to 53rd in the same list.
