ICC T20 Rankings: In the Asia Cup 2022, the players of India and Pakistan will be seen fighting for the title, but there is one player each from both the teams, who will fight for number one. Yes, we are talking about Suryakumar Yadav of India and Babar Azam of Pakistan. Pakistan captain Babar Azam still remains the No. 1 batsman in T20Is, while Suryakumar Yadav is only a few steps behind.
Recently India won 4-1 in the completed T20 series against West Indies and Suryakumar Yadav is giving competition to Babar in the batsmen rankings. Rising opener Suryakumar Yadav was the highest run-scorer during the series with 135 runs, but was rested for the final match, missing his chance to overtake Babar. With Yadav remaining at the second spot in the T20 rankings, Babar is now leading by 13 ratings points ahead of the much-awaited match between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Dubai later this month.
Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are the top gainers in the race for the top ranking. Iyer hit an impressive half-century during the fifth and final match of the series in Florida as the batsman jumped six places in the overall rankings to 19th. Pant finished the series as the second leading run-scorer with 115 runs, scoring 44 in the fourth match as the left-hander moved up seven places to 59th.
In the series against West Indies, India’s bowlers also did wonders, which helped them in the bowling rankings. Young spinner Ravi Bishnoi was India’s leading wicket-taker during the series with eight wickets in hand as the 21-year-old jumped 50 places overall to be ranked 44th in the recent list of bowlers. Teammates Avesh Khan, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also took the lead, while veteran Tej Bhuvneshwar Kumar dropped a place to ninth position after just three wickets during the West Indies series.
South Africa’s 2-0 series win over Ireland also propelled their players up the T20 rankings, with in-form opener Reeza Hendrix moving up two places in the batsmen’s list to 13th. Spinner Keshav Maharaj has moved up 10 places to 18th overall in the bowlers’ rankings, while South Africa teammate Dwayne Pretorius has jumped seven places to 26th in the all-rounders’ list.
There has been no change in the Test rankings and no red-ball matches last week, while there have been some minor changes in the ODI rankings after the first two matches of the series between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. In-form all-rounder Sikandar Raza has proved to be a successful batsman for Zimbabwe in recent times and the experienced 36-year-old Raza has moved up the ranks in the latest ODI rankings. Raza has scored two consecutive unbeaten centuries against Bangladesh. He has jumped 10 places in the rankings for right-handed batsmen to be at 29th position and in the list of all-rounders he has jumped seven places to the fourth position.