Hazlewood claims No. 1 spot among T20I bowlers; Ishan Kishan becomes highest-rated India batter

Josh Hazlewood continued his rise in T20 cricket by claiming the No. 1 spot among bowlers in the ICC rankings. Before him, the last Australia bowler to top the T20I bowling charts was Nathan Bracken back in 2008.

With six wickets, Hazlewood was the leading wicket-taker in Australia's recent 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka, as he rose two places to go above Tabraiz Shamsi and Adil Rashid to the No. 1 spot. Before that, Hazlewood had grabbed 11 wickets in Australia's victorious campaign in the T20 World Cup last year.

Hazlewood, remarkably, hadn't played a T20I between March 2016 and September 2020.

Meanwhile, India opener Ishan Kishan entered the top ten in the T20I batting rankings for the first time. Scores of 76, 34 and 54 in the first three T20Is in the ongoing series against South Africa propelled him 68 spots from his No. 75 ranking at the start of the series. Kishan is now the top-ranked India batter in T20Is, above KL Rahul who sits at 14th.

Kishan remains the top-scorer in the series with 164 runs, as India hit back in the third game in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to keep the five-match series alive.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam continues to lead the batting charts, with his opening partner Mohammad Rizwan rising a spot up to No. 2, from where Aiden Markram slipped to third after missing the series against India after testing positive for Covid-19.

In other notable movements among bowlers, Hazlewood's team-mate Ashton Agar gained three places to move up to ninth, while Sri Lanka's Maheesh Theekshana jumped 16 spots to eighth. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's six wickets in three games against South Africa helped him rise three places to No. 11 with a career-best ratings points total of 635.