ICC T20I Rankings: Suryakumar Yadav becomes No. 1 batter, ends Pakistan opener Md Rizwan’s reign

India`s Suryakumar Yadav has grabbed the top position for batters in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20I Player Rankings after smashing two half-centuries over the past week in the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Yadav’s 51 not out off 25 balls against the Netherlands in Sydney and a valiant 68 off 40 against South Africa in Perth have helped him overtake New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan. They had held the top spot since 4 September this year.

Yadav is the 23rd player to top the T20I batting rankings and only the second Indian to reach No. 1 in T20 cricket after Virat Kohli, who spent 1,013 days at the top in different periods from September 2014 to December 2017. Yadav’s tally of 863 rating points is also the second-best by an Indian, the highest being Kohli’s tally of 897 in September 2014.New Zealand`s Glenn Phillips has moved up five slots to reach a career-best seventh position after scores of 104 against Sri Lanka and 62 against England, while South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw is another one to enter the top 10 after scoring 109 against Bangladesh, moving up 17 slots to a career-best eighth position.

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England captain Jos Buttler’s knock of 73 against New Zealand has lifted him three places to 14th position while Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz (up four places to joint-17th), South Africa`s David Miller (up two places to 28th), Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa (up eight places to 29th), Bangladesh’s Litton Das (up two places to 36th) and the Australia pair of Mitchell Marsh (up two places to 31st) and Marcus Stoinis (up two places to 39th) are among others to move up the list.

The latest weekly update, which considers performances in matches completed by Tuesday, sees Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga advance four places to second position among bowlers. Hasaranga, who became No.1 during the ICC Men`s T20 World Cup last year, has moved back towards the top position after winning one wicket against New Zealand and three against Afghanistan. Hasaranga has only three points less than Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan. England seamer Sam Curran, who grabbed two wickets each against New Zealand and Ireland during this period, is up two places to sixth position while South Africa quick Anrich Nortje has progressed 11 slots to the eighth position after his haul of four for 10 against Bangladesh. New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner has moved into the top 10 while his teammates Trent Boult and Tim Southee have taken the 12th and 16th positions, respectively. South Africa fast bowler Lungi Ngidi`s Player of the Match effort of four for 29 against India has lifted him 11 places to join 28th with India`s Axar Patel.

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (up three places to 18th), Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Wasim (up one place to 21st), New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi (up three places to 22nd) and left-arm seam bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan (up four places to joint-24th) and India`s Arshdeep Singh (up 16 places to 27th) are the prominent gainers in the bowlers` list.