Rashid, Munro and Maxwell take top spots in T20I rankings

—-Kumar, Malan, Sarkar, Mendis and Tye among others to gain in latest update

Rashid Khan
Rashid Khan

(ICC) Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has moved up to take top position among bowlers in the latest MRF Tyres ICC T20I Player Rankings with some fine performances in a 2-0 series win over Zimbabwe.

Rashid, who last week became the youngest male cricketer to be top-ranked in the ICC rankings when he rose up to joint-first in ODIs, has moved up after taking five wickets in the two-match series in Sharjah to complete the double.

The 19-year-old Rashid’s movement was not the only one at the top as New Zealand opener Colin Munro and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell became the top-ranked batsman and all-rounder, respectively. The latest update includes performances in the Trans-Transman series in New Zealand that also featured Australia and England, a three-match series in South Africa that India won 2-1, and Sri Lanka’s 2-0 win over hosts Bangladesh.

Left-handed Munro has gained three slots after scoring 176 runs in the Trans-Transman series, which came with the help of two fifties and at a strike-rate of almost 210. Maxwell regained the top slot for all-rounders scoring 233 runs and grabbing three wickets in the tournament. Munro had also held the top spot from 3-28 January this year while this is Maxwell’s third stint as the top all-rounder after first ascending to the summit in September 2016,

In the list of batsmen, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill (up six places to fifth) has made significant movement after scoring 258 runs while England’s Dawid Malan (up 127 places to a career-best 22nd), India opener Shikhar Dhawan (up 14 places to a career-best 28th), South Africa captain Jean-Paul Duminy (up four places to 24th) Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar (up three places to 20th) and Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis (up 66 places to 75th) are among the others to gain.

Among bowlers, New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has gained one position to take second rank but is 59 points adrift of Rashid. India pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar (up 20 places to 12th) and England leg-spinner Adil Rashid (up eight places to 15th) have made noteworthy gains while Australia fast bowler Andrew Tye’s 10 wickets have helped him jump 53 places to a career-best 49th position.

Meanwhile, India have gained one point and South Africa have lost one point in the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Team Rankings after their closely-fought series and retain their third and seventh positions, respectively. Pakistan are on the top of the table at 126 points but only fractionally ahead of Australia.