By Asghar Ali Mubarak
Islamabad: Pakistan’s leading batsman Babar Azam has retained the top position as well as his aggregate of 879 points in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Twenty20 Player Rankings.
For Pakistan, experienced players Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have also advanced to 45th and 71st positions, respectively, after slamming a half-century each in the three-match series against Bangladesh.
Lokesh Rahul leads a pack of India players who have shot up the rankings after their team stormed to a 5-0 series win in New Zealand.
Rahul’s series-topping aggregate of 224 runs has lifted him four places to a career best-equalling second place while Rohit Sharma (up three places to 10th), Shreyas Iyer (up 63 places to 55th) and Manish Pandey (up 12 places to 58th) are others advancing in the latest rankings update that also includes the Pakistan-Bangladesh series.
Indian captain Virat Kohli has retained his ninth position with 105 runs from four matches. The story is similar for the India bowling attack as Jasprit Bumrah has gained 26 places to reach 11th position, Yuzvendra Chahal has advanced 10 places to 30th and Shardul Thakur’s eight wickets in the series have lifted him 34 places to 57th position. Navdeep Saini (up 25 places to 71st) and Ravindra Jadeja (up 34 places to 76th) have also moved up.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson’s 160 runs in the series have taken him from 23rd to 16th position while Tim Seifert (73rd to 34th) and Ross Taylor (50th to 39th) have also made notable gains in the batsmen’s list. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has advanced six places to 13th among bowlers.
Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal, who topscored in the series with an aggregate of 104 runs, has gained 11 slots to reach 50th position.
