ICC Men’s T20I Rankings: Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda make gains

Dubai [UAE], January 5 (ANI): Indian opener Ishan Kishan jumped 10 spots to reach the 23rd position among batters in the latest ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings on Thursday.

In the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings that takes into account performances in the first match of the series between India and Sri Lanka played in Mumbai, Player of the Match Deepak Hooda has moved up 40 places to 97th among batters after his unbeaten 41 off 23 balls. Hardik Pandya (up nine places to 76th among bowlers) is the other to move up the rankings. For Sri Lanka, all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga has moved up to fifth among all-rounders while Dasun Shanaka and Chamika Karunaratne have moved up the list for batters and bowlers, respectively.

Australia batter Steve Smith has overtaken Pakistan captain Babar Azam to grab the second position in the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings after scoring 85 in his team’s innings and 182 runs win over South Africa in the second match of their ICC World Test Championship series in Melbourne.

Smith is just one rating point ahead of Babar, who too gained seven rating points in the latest weekly update to reach a career-best 882 points after scoring 161 and 14 in a high-scoring drawn first Test against New Zealand in Karachi.

Smith, a formerly top-ranked batter who had been overtaken by Babar last month, is 42 rating points behind his team-mate Marnus Labuschagne. Travis Head is in the fourth position, as Australia continue to have three of their batters among the top four.

Named Player of the Match at the MCG for a knock of 200, David Warner is up 17 places to 14th while centurion Alex Carey (up 19 places to 28th) and all-rounder Cameron Green (up seven places to 39th) have also progressed. Spinner Nathan Lyon (up one place to 11th), seamers Scott Boland (up four places to 39th) and Green (up 16 places to 65th) are among those to move up in the bowlers’ rankings.

For South Africa, Kyle Verreynne has moved up from 60th to 48th among batters while fast bowler Andre Nortje has advanced five places to 19th among bowlers.
New Zealand batter Kane Williamson has also made notable progress, moving to fifth position after an unbeaten 200 lifted him two places, while his team-mate Daryl Mitchell has entered the top 10. Opener Tom Latham has moved up seven places to 20th after scoring a century in the first innings of the Karachi Test while Devon Conway has advanced 11 places to 24th with knocks of 92 and 18 not out.

Pakistan’s left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq has moved up three places to 34th after scores of 24 and 96, Saud Shakeel has gained eight slots to reach 50th position, wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed has re-entered the rankings in 70th position and Agha Salman has gained 15 slots to reach 91st position after scoring 103 in the first innings.

Abrar Ahmed’s first innings haul of five for 205 and a total of six wickets in the match see him advance to 60th position.