KL Rahul jumps to career-best 2nd position in ICC T20I Rankings

Going into the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, India did not have a specialist wicket-keeper in their playing XI. Instead, opening batsman KL Rahul was assigned the keeping duty. The Karnataka batsman did not disappoint and topped the run-charts with 224 runs in the series while effecting three catches and a stumping. ICC has rewarded his performances by boosting his position by four places. Rahul is now second in ICC’s T20I batsmen’s rankings.

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Rohit and Williamson climb the ladder

Apart from Rahul, Rohit Sharma was the other Indian batsman to make substantial gains in the rankings. He climbed three places to crack into the top ten batsmen’s list. Captain Virat Kohli remained on the ninth position thus establishing three Indian batsmen in first ten. Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey also surged upwards with their good showing in the recent series. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who scored a blazing 95, also jumped seven places to finish at 16th. He missed out on the last two encounters of the series.

Bumrah eyes entry in the top ten

India’s premier pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah gained 26 places to reach 11th position. He snared six wickets in the series and was extremely economical in all but one match. He also bowled both the Super Overs for India in the winning cause. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has advanced 10 places to 30th and another pacer Shardul Thakur jumped 34 places to 57th position. Navdeep Saini (up 25 places to 71st) and Ravindra Jadeja (up 34 places to 76th) also moved upwards.

India are currently joint-third in the team rankings. Both India and England have 265 ratings. Pakistan top the list with just one points more than Australia who are second with 269 ratings. New Zealand are sixth with Afghanistan and Sri Lanka following them closely.