RIZWAN OVERTAKES BABAR TO BECOME NO.1 BATTER IN MRF TYRES ICC MEN’S T20I PLAYER RANKINGS

Nissanka, Mendis,  Rohit Sharma,  Virat Kohli, Rahmanullah and Najibullah among others to move up in latest weekly update

Khel Today Bureau 
New Delhi: Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan has overtaken his opening partner and captain Babar Azam to seize the top position among batters in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings after the weekly update carried out on Wednesday.

Rizwan followed up his Player of the Match effort of 78 off 57 deliveries in an Asia Cup Group A match against Hong Kong with a crucial 71 off 51 against India in a Super Fours match in Dubai, to move from 796 rating points to a career-best 815 and claim the top position for the first time.

Rizwan is only the third Pakistan batter to be No. 1 in the T20I batting rankings after Babar, who has been at the top of the table for 1,155 days in all, and Misbah-ul-Haq, who was at the top for 313 days, from 20 April 2008 to 27 February 2009.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Nawaz’s match-winning 42 off 20 in the same match sees him move up 142 slots to 358th in the rankings.

India’s Suryakumar Yadav has dropped to fourth place in the latest update even as a host of players from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have made their way up after some fine performances in the Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis have made notable progress after scoring half-centuries in a memorable win against India on Tuesday. Nissanka is up one place to eighth while Mendis has advanced 63 places to 41st position.

Dasun Shanaka (up 11 places to 39th) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (up 31 places to 68th) have also moved up the rankings for batters while off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana has progressed five places to eighth among bowlers.

Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s Player of the Match effort of 84 off 45 balls that helped beat Sri Lanka in a group match, has helped him progress 14 places to 15th while Najibullah Zadran has moved up two places to 28th after scoring 43 against Bangladesh. Spinners Mujeeb ur Rehman (up three places to sixth) and Mohammad Nabi (up two places to 32nd) have also gained in the latest update.

India captain Rohit Sharma has gained four slots to reach 13th position after scoring 72 against Sri Lanka in their Super Fours match while former captain Virat Kohli has gained four places and is 29th in the list after scoring 60 against Pakistan. Ravichandran Ashwin (up eight places to 50th) and Arshdeep Singh (up 28 places to 62nd) have also progressed.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings updated after the second and third Australia versus Zimbabwe matches and the first Australia versus New Zealand match, Australia’s David Warner has moved up one place to sixth position among batters and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson up one place to 10th.

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has moved up three places to 12th and leg-spinner Adam Zampa two places to 18th.