Pakistan middle order batsman Babar Azam has grabbed his career-best position in the MRF ICC T20I Player Rankings after the batsman was adjudged the Player of the Series during the Independence Cup against the World XI side led by Faf du Plessis. Pakistan completed a 2-1 series win as international cricket resumed in Pakistan after a long time.
Babar scored a fluent 86 in the 1st T20I and followed it up with two more useful knocks of 45 and 48 to finish with 179 runs in the series eight more than his teammate Ahmed Shehzad who reached the 22nd position. As per latest ICC Rankings which also takes into consideration the One-off T20I between England and West Indies which the Windies won by 21 runs. Shoaib Malik was another Pakistani who gained four slots to reach the 30th position.
In the bowling department leggie, Shadab Khan also gained 32 places to climb to 66th in the Latest ICC Rankings for bowlers. Among the opposition, World XI it was Thisara Perera who gained 16 places to rise to 53rd in the Rankings for batsmen and 13 places to 79th position among bowlers. Hashim Amla also gained three places and moved up to 12th place.
Meanwhile, Windies opener Evin Lewis won a place after his 51 in the one-off T20I against England to reach his career-best 3rd position while his opening partner Chris Gayle who scored a 40 gained four places to reach joint 22nd position. Carlos Brathwaite and Kesrick Williams also made significant gains in the bowling arena. While Brathwaite moved up 17 places to 33rd position, Kesrick Williams moved 12 places to go up to 61st place.
Meanwhile, there were gains for the home team England as well. Liam Plunkett moved up 15 places to go up to the 63rd position while Adil Rashid also moved 11 places to 28th. Both bagged three-wicket hauls in the solitary T20I.