Suryakumar back to career-best No. 2 in T20I rankings, Babar just behind at third
Axar Patel moves to 18th among bowlers, while Harry Brook and Ben Duckett also move up in the batters' list
ESPNcricinfo staff
28-Sep-2022
Suryakumar Yadav scored 69 off 36 balls against Australia in the third T20I • BCCI
Suryakumar Yadav has returned to his career-best No. 2 spot, a rise of one position, in the latest ICC T20I batting rankings.
Just one slot and two rating points below Suryakumar is Babar Azam. He also moved up by one position, thanks to his scores of 110*, 8 and 36 in the ongoing seven-match T20I series against England. Mohammad Rizwan, who scored 88*, 8 and 88 in those three games, continued to head the list with a comfortable 60-point lead over second-placed Suryakumar.
After a first-ball duck in the second T20I against Australia, Suryakumar struck a 36-ball 69 in the third match in Hyderabad to help India win the series 2-1.
Pakistan have three more T20Is to go in their seven-match series at home against England, while India now play a three-T20I series at home against South Africa, providing all those three batters a chance to strengthen their positions and, for Suryakumar and Babar, even move up the ladder.
England's Harry Brook and Ben Duckett also made significant progress in the latest update. Both of them struck a half-century and two other scores of over 30 each in their last three games. As a result, Brook has moved to the 29th position and Duckett to the 32nd.
In the bowler's rankings, Axar Patel was the big mover, climbing up from 33rd to 18th after his Player-of-the-Series performance against Australia. In a series dominated by the bat, Axar picked up eight wickets in three games while giving away only 6.30 runs per over.
Josh Hazlewood is still at the top there, after picking up three wickets from three games, and is followed by five wristspinners - Tabraiz Shamsi, Adil Rashid, Rashid Khan, Wanindu Hasaranga and Adam Zampa, in that order. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, at tenth position, is the only other fast bowler in top ten, while Haris Rauf has moved to 14th, up by seven places after taking five wickets in the last three matches.
In the ODI rankings that considered performances in five matches of the Cricket World Cup League 2 in Port Morseby, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus has gained 38 places to be joint-49th after his 49 against Papua New Guinea.