ICC T20 Player Rankings: Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar make significant rise
Dubai: India opener Shikhar Dhawan and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Sunday made significant gains in the latest ICC T20 player rankings, riding on their superlative performances in a 2-1 T20 International series win over South Africa.
Dhawan, who scored 143 runs to emerge as the top run-getter in the three-game T20 series, jumped 14 places to grab a career-best 28th spot, while Man of the series Kumar, who took seven wickets, improved 20 places to reach the 12th spot in the player rankings.
In the ICC T20 Team Rankings, India have gained one point and South Africa have lost one point 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.
South Africa captain Jean-Paul Duminy, who scored 122 runs in the series, also jumped four places to be at the 24th spot in the batting ranking.
Among others, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has moved up to take top position among bowlers 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.
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), 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. 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.
