Rahul, who was the Player of the Series against the BlackCaps for his aggregate of 224 runs in five innings, shot up four places, while Rohit Sharma jumped three places to No. 10, Shreyas Iyer lept 63 places to No. 55 and Pandey jumped from 70th spot to No. 58 in the T20I rankings, which the international cricket board announced on Monday. There are now three Indians in the top 10 batsmen, as Virat Kohli has retained his ninth position with his tally of 105 runs from four matches against the Kiwis having missed the fifth and final match.
Rahul’s 224 runs in five T20Is against New Zealand helped him go past Kohli in a record. The wicketkeeper-batsman became the Indian batsman with most runs in a bilateral T20I series, surpassing Kohli’s 199 runs, which he scored against Australia in a three-match series in 2016. Even the Indian bowlers were lauded for their spectacular show in the T20I series against New Zealand. Jasprit Bumrah has gained 26 places to reach No. 11, Yuzvendra Chahal has jumped 10 places to No. 30 and Shardul Thakur’s eight wickets in the series have shot him up 34 places to No. 57. Navdeep Saini (up 25 places to 71st) and Ravindra Jadeja (up 34 places to 76th) have also made progress in the latest ICC T20I Player Rankings.
Pakistan’s Babar Azam remains on the top spot ahead of Rahul and Aussie skipper Aaron Finch in the batsmen’s rankings. In the bowlers’ category, the top spot belongs to Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan ahead of his compatriot Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Kiwi Mitchell Santner. The current top three all-rounders in the shortest format of the game are Mohammad Nabi of Afghanistan, Australia’s Glenn Maxwell and Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams.
