KOHLI MOVES BACK IN TOP 5 IN MRF TYRES ICC T20I PLAYER RANKINGS

Bairstow, Iyer and Wood among others to move up the T20I lists in weekly update of the men’s player rankings

Gunathilaka and Hope gain big in ODI rankings; Hashmatullah and Williams advance in Test rankings

Khel Today Reporter
New Delhi: India captain Virat Kohli has moved back into the top five and England’s Jos Buttler has re-entered the top 20 of the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings after blistering performances in their ongoing five-match series in Ahmedabad which England lead 2-1.

Kohli, a formerly top-ranked batsman in the format and currently number one in ODIs, has gained one slot and a massive 47 rating points after unbeaten knocks of 73 and 77 in the second and third matches while Buttler’s match-winning 83 not out in the third match has helped him advance five places to 19th position, just two shy of his career-best 17th position attained in October 2018.

There were also some other fine performances in the series between the top two sides of the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings, providing them with a good opportunity to prepare for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup later this year in India.

Jonny Bairstow, who chipped in with 40 runs and was associated in an unbroken 77-run stand with Buttler in the eight-wicket win on Tuesday, has moved up two slots to 14th position in the list led by his compatriot Dawid Malan. Jason Roy has advanced four slots to 24th with scores of 49 and 46 in the first two matches.

Fast bowlers Jofra Archer (up 43 places to 34th) and Mark Wood (up 59 places to 39th), as well as left-arm seam bowler Sam Curran (up 41 places to 74th) have gained in the weekly update for men, carried out on Wednesdays.

For India, Shreyas Iyer (up 32 places to 31st) and Rishabh Pant (up 30 places to 80th) have gained among batsmen while all-rounder Washington Sundar (up two places to 11th) and seam bowlers Shardul Thakur (up 14 places to 27th) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (up seven places to 45th) have moved up the list for bowlers.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings, wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope’s player of the series effort against Sri Lanka, in which he had scores of 110, 84 and 64, have helped him gain five slots and reach joint-seventh position, three off his career best fourth position attained in May 2019.

Nicholas Pooran (up one place to 32nd), Evin Lewis (up 10 places to 44th) and Darren Bravo (up eight places to 99th) are the other West Indies players to move up in the batting list after their team won the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League series 3-0. Fast bowler Alzarri Joseph’s four wickets see him advance seven places to a career-best 27th position.

For Sri Lanka, Danushka Gunathilaka has gained 20 slots to reach 51st position after scoring 187 runs in the series while PWH de Silva (up from 94th to 66th) and Lakshan Sandakan (up from 124th to 99th) are among those to move up the bowlers’ list.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings, Hashmatullah Shahidi has entered the top 100 after notching up Afghanistan’s first Test double century, which helped his team beat Zimbabwe by six wickets to level the two-match series 1-1. He has rocketed 47 places to 90th position.

Captain Asghar Afghan, who scored 164 and shared in a fourth-wicket partnership of 307 with Hashmatullah, has moved up to a career-best 65th place while leg-spinner Rashid Khan’s toil of bowling nearly 100 overs not only earned him returns of four for 138 and seven for 137 but also a reward of nine places to reach 32nd position in the rankings.

Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams is up to a career-best 24th place after scoring 151 while following-on, his tally of 621 rating points the highest for his country since Brendan Taylor in 2014. Donald Tiripano’s knock of 95 in the second innings has helped him progress 22 places to 123rd in the charts.