After impressive performances in the series against Afghanistan, a number of Indian players advanced significantly in the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, with bowler Axar Patel moving up 12 spots to a career-best fifth position. After the latest weekly rankings update on Wednesday, which takes into account all matches completed until Tuesday, Patel moved up two spots to 16th among all-rounders thanks to his hauls of two for 23 and two for 16 in India’s identical six-wicket victories over Afghanistan in the first two Twenty20 Internationals of their three-match series.
Opener Yashaswi Jaiswal’s 34-ball 68 in the first T20I in Indore has lifted him seven places to a career-best sixth position while other left-hander Shivam Dube’s successive unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 have helped him shoot up from 265th to 58th, as per ICC.
Another player to make notable gains is New Zealand’s Finn Allen, whose two innings of 34 off 15 balls and 74 off 41 balls helped his team win the first two matches against Pakistan and lifted him 11 places to 16th among batters. His team-mate Tim Southee, who took six wickets in the first two matches, is up eight places to 18th in the bowlers’ list.
Shubman Gill (up seven places to 60th among batters), Tilak Verma (up three places to joint-61st among batters) and Arshdeep Singh (up four places to 21st among bowlers) are the other India players to move up while Najibullah Zadran (up one place to 46th) and Mohammad Nabi (up two places to 54th) are the Afghanistan players to move up in the batting rankings.
