Hardik Pandya crowned top T20I all-rounder after T20 World Cup final heroics

Dubai [UAE], July 3 (ANI): Hardik Pandya rose two places to go level with Sri Lankan star Wanindu Hasaranga as the top-ranked men’s T20I all-rounder on Wednesday, as per the ICC official website.

The all-rounder, who made a big contribution in the final with the crucial wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, had a good tournament with bat and ball and became the first Indian man to reach No.1 in the category.

Hardik Pandya made impactful cameos down the order with the bat and made breakthroughs with the ball when the team needed him to. He finished with 144 runs at a batting strike rate of over 150 and also took 11 wickets.

His most important performance, though, came in the final when his decisive blow – the wicket of Klaasen – with South Africa on top of the game swung the contest. Hardik went on to bowl the tense final over and defended 16 runs to help India win the T20 World Cup title.

There were other movements in the top 10 of the T20I all-rounder rankings, with Marcus Stoinis, Sikandar Raza, Shakib Al Hasan and Liam Livingstone rising up by one spot. Mohammad Nabi moved back by four spots to go out of the top five.

Among the men’s T20I bowling rankings, Anrich Nortje rose up by seven places to a career-best second spot to go just behind top-ranked Adil Rashid with 675 rating points.

India’s star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who won the Player of the Tournament award at the T20 World Cup, for his 15 wickets, moved up by 12 spots to go just outside the top ten, his highest position since the end of 2020.

Kuldeep Yadav entered the top ten of the bowling rankings, moving up by three spots to joint-eighth. Among other beneficiaries were Arshdeep Singh, who moved up by four spots to a career-best No.13 after topping the wickets chart at the T20 World Cup, and Tabraiz Shamsi, who moved up by five positions to reach the top 15.

There wasn’t too much movement in the top ten of the batting rankings with one minor change in South Africa skipper Aiden Markram dropping down by two points after an ordinary tournament with the bat.